AUSSIE YOUTH OLYMPIC SWIMMERS WIN FOUR MORE GOLD
Sydney, January 17th: Teenage swim stars Katie Goldman and Phillip Butcher led the Australian team to more gold on night three of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) swimming finals at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Brooke Hanson reports...
On a thrilling third night of competition the Australian Flippers won 13 medals, four of them gold taking the overall medal tally to thirty-six including eleven gold.
The Australians dominated the first event with a clean sweep in the women's 400 metres freestyle. The Aussie trifecta led by winner Katie Goldman (4.14.33), Jessica Ashwood (4.16.55) and Kelly Marquenie (4.16.66) set the Australian team up for the rest of the night.
Goldman led from start to finish taking two seconds off her previous best time. Ashwood swam a strong last 100m to touch out team-mate Marquenie by 0.11 of a second. Marquenie was happy to get the bronze medal but was more thrilled with improving her best time by eight seconds.
When asked about her three gold and one silver at the AYOF Goldman said:
"I'm really happy with my results and I wasn't expecting to swim another PB by two seconds.
"My times are good and the medals are a great bonus, it was special to share the medal presentation with two of my team mates."
Ashwood took inspiration from her brother Chris who took the bronze medal in the men's 400m freestyle at the 2007 AYOF.
"Before I left home I saw his two Boxing Kangaroo's in his room and I thought I want one of those, I already have two and hopefully I can go one better than him and get a third," Ashwood said.
Later in the night she claimed that third Kangaroo when Australia green won the bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
In the men's 100m butterfly Australia's Phillip Butcher (54.50) blitzed the field from lane six to win another gold medal for the Australian team ahead of Japan's Yusuke Yasue (55.32) with Aussie Luke Stirton (55.61) winning his second bronze after the 200m butterfly bronze medal on night one.
Five countries battled it out in the men's 400m freestyle three Australians, two Canadians, one Chinese, a Japanese and a Kiwi.
The winner was Canadian Chad Bobrosky (3.57.71), who held off fast finishing Australian Dylan Wyatt (3.58.60) with Bobrosky's team mate David Dimitrov finishing third (4.00.63).
Australia's other podium finishes included silver to Ben Edmonds (2.04.90) in the men's 200m backstroke, Megan Mackay (1.01.28) bronze in the women's 100m butterfly and Catlin Sinclair (2.15.65) bronze in the women's 200m backstroke.
The 4x100m freestyle relays didn't disappoint with the Australia Gold women's team made up of Darthea Clydsdale, Katie Goldman, Madeleine Van Hunnik and Kelly Marquenie (3.48.91) wining the gold medal.
Australia gold finished one second ahead of Canada (3.49.99) with Australian Green (3.50.88) winning the bronze medal, represented by Phoebe Cater, Aleysha Tokai, Bronte Campbell and Jessica Ashwood.
The atmosphere in the pool was electric and the Australian team cheers got louder as the Australian teams walked out for the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.
Australia finished first and second with Australia Gold (3.25.81) James Sweeney, Alex Gohari, James Justin, Kenneth To winning the gold medal ahead of Australia Green (3.27.07) Mitchell Pryor, James Roberts, Luke Stirton and Luke Kerswell making an Aussie quinella in front of Canada (3.30.28).
Australia's other finalists included:
Women's 400m Freestyle: Aleysha Tokai 4th (4.18.46)
Men's 400m Freestyle: Mitchell Larkin 4th (4.00.94) Justin James 7th (4.05.94)
Women's 100m Butterfly: Nicole Mee 5th (1.01.46) Phoebe Cater 7th (1.02.01) Madeleine Van Hunnik 8th (1.02.20)
Men's 100m Butterfly: Alex Gohari 4th (55.84) Dylan Wyatt 7th 57.52
Women's 200m Backstroke: Whitney Ireland 6th (2.21.03) Rachael Gorrie 8th (2.21.49)
Men's 200m backstroke: Andrew Read 8th (2.11.85)
Medal Tally After Day 3 Finals
Gold Silver Bronze Total
Australia Gold 7 8 8 23
Canada 5 7 6 18
Australia Green 4 4 5 13
Japan 6 4 2 12
Australia Combined 11 12 13 36
Combined Team point scores
Australia Gold 197.5
Canada 178
Australia Green 162.5
Japan 136
New Zealand 43
China 38
Chinese Taipei 13