LIBBY'S DUEL TIMES SET AIS POOL ALIGHT

 Listen to Libby Trickett May 9 {audio}/images/stories/news-articles/audio/Libby Trickett may 9 Duel in the Pool interview.mp3{/audio}

Listen to Eamon Sullivan May 9 {audio}/images/stories/news-articles/audio/Eamon Sullivan may 9 Duel in Pool interview.mp3{/audio}

AIS, Canberra, May 9: Olympic champion and world record holder Libby Trickett should swim Duel in the Pool meets every other week . . .  why? Because when she does, amazing things happen.

Tonight at the AIS pool in Canberra, Trickett led off in the mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relay and touched the wall in 52.89sec (25.29), just 0.01 outside her own world record. 

The second fastest time in history, Trickett's opening swim lit the fuse on the meet against Japan, but like on most occasions when this champion dives into the water there was plenty more still to come.

An hour-and-a-half later she was at it again swimming 52.95 (25.55) in the 100m freestyle,  her fifth ever time under the 53 second mark, and the best of the three Aussies in the pool with Marieke Guehrer (55.30) and Shayne Reese (55.70) coming in second and third.

Surprised by her consistency and sharp times in the early races, Trickett then stepped up to anchor the  Australian women's  4 x 100m freestyle relay, swimming her third sub 53 second 100m freestyle of the night with a time of 52.95 with a flying start.

It is no surprise then that 24-year-old says she enjoys the Duel in the Pool format which sees the Australians, who dominated the relays, ahead 94-77 in the open competition; Japan ahead in Youth pointscore 88-83 and Australia ahead in the overall tally, 177-165.

"It's just a competitive, head-to-head competition and that's why I love it," said Trickett.

"I've had some of my best meets competing at Duel in the Pools, this is my fourth year doing it and it's a really exciting format and I seem to swim well under the circumstances."

"This is what we were trying to do at the world's but to be doing those times now makes me very excited."

"I thought 53 low was a very good possibility but to get under 53 seconds is awesome for me and gives me so much confidence.  It just proves to myself that I was able to do it and that I had it in me all along."

In the men's events it was Andrew Lauterstein and Eamon Sullivan who led the way for Australia against the vastly improved Japanese team, with Lauterstein winning the 100m butterfly in 51.52 and Sullivan the 100m freestyle in 48.40.

But the highlight of the night in the men's competition came in the 100m backstroke, with world ranked number one, Japan's Ryosuke Irie missing Aaron Piersol's world record by two one-hundreths of a second, stopping the clock at 52.56.

Meanwhile in the youth competition  13-year-old Queensland sensation Yolane Kukla swam 56.29 to win the 100m freestyle, a time that would have seen her finish seventh in the senior race and then split 56.11 to anchor the women's youth 4 x 100m freestyle relay into first place and five points.

Here is a run down of the women's events:

100M FREESTYLE: Libby Trickett served up another treat to give her own world mark a real nudge, clocking 52.95 to be the best of the three Aussies in the pool with Marieke Guehrer (55.30) and Shayne Reese (55.70) coming in second and third.

400M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: In the opening individual event of the night 2009 Japanese 800 and 400 IM champion Maiko Fujino stopped the clock at 4:41.03 to lower Stephanie Rice's colours. The triple gold medallist from Beijing, Rice (4:42.86) finished third, behind fellow Aussie Ellen Fullerton (4:42.89). Fullerton and Fujino came home strong over the top of Rice, after the Olympic champion had led at every turn only to be chased down by the visitor for the five points.

100M BUTTERFLY: Olympic bronze medallist Jessicah Schipper (57.86) joined with Felicity Galvez (58.60) to take first and second in the 100m butterfly with Schipper, just recently named as part of the Telstra Dolphins leadership group, swimming extremely well considering her limited training due to an illness last month.

100M BACKSTROKE: Japan took the honours in the women's 100m backstroke with Aya Terakawa (59.98) beating Belinda Hocking to the wall (1:00.02) and 16-year-old and Australian record holder Emily Seebohm coming in fourth. 

100M BREASTSTROKE: The visitors also got the better of their hosts in the 100m breaststroke with 20-year-old Hitomi Nose (1:07.63) touching out Australia's Sarah Katsoulis by .04 of a second.

400M FREESTYLE: Beijing Olympic open water swimmer Melissa Gorman swam a personal best of 4:10.08 from lane eight in the 400m freestyle to defeat team member and Australian record holder Bronte Barratt with the 23-year-old surprised by the performance saying it was a good indication that her 800m form should be strong for the World Championships in July.

Here is a break down of the men's events:

100M BACKSTROKE: Japan's National champion Ryosuke Irie (52.56 - 25.77) gave American Aaron Piersol's 2008 world record of 52.54 a real fright to set a new Japanese National record, ahead of compatriot Junya Koga (53.38) with Australia's Ashley Delaney third in 53.45.

100M BUTTERFLY: Australia's Olympic bronze medallist Andrew Lauterstein hung on in the dying stages to clock 51.52, just ahead of Japan's Takuro Fuji (51.53) with Ryo Takayasu (52.73) third.

100M BREASTSTROKE: Japan's Ryo Tateishi (59.48) and swimming in lane one, caught the field by surprise to give the visitor's a stunning quinella, ahead of Yuta Suenaga (1:00.68) with Australia's Christian Sprenger third in 1:01.01.

100M FREESTYLE: Olympic silver medallist, Eamon Sullivan, swimming well within himself on a busy night, stopped the clock at 48.40 to spearhead an Australian 1-2, ahead of Olympic team mate Matt Targett (49.04) with Japan's Takuro Fuji third in 49.18.

400M FREESTYLE: Japan's Takeshi Matsuda staged a thrilling finish with Australian champion Robert Hurley, the visitor winning in 3:47.82 to Hurley's 3:48.21 with Australia's Patrick Murphy third in 3:51.19.

400M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY: The Japanese pair Ken Takakuwa (4:16.38) and Yuya Horihata (4:18.19) dominated ahead of Australian pair Stephen Parkes (4:25.25) and Leith Brodie (4:31.00).