RISING STAR SEEBOHM THE DOLPHIN TO WATCH IN 2010
July 15: Rising Australian swim star Emily Seebohm will tonight start a gold medal quest that could well make her swimming's star of the pool in 2010.
The 18-year-old from Brothers in Brisbane equaled her own Australian All-Comers record in the 100m backstroke, clocking 57.47secs at last night's opening session of the National Short Course Swimming Championships at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.
The girl who swam the backstroke leg in Australia's gold medal winning 4x100m medley relay team in Beijing was a comfortable top qualifier from the semi-finals into tonight's final.
Seebohm has made the step up from the young girl who burst on to the scene as a kid most likely at the 2007 FINA World Championships.
She will line up in a backstroke field that includes fellow Olympians Belinda Hocking, Australian record holder Marieke Guehrer and Sophie Edington.
The Matt Brown trained all-rounder will go into tonight's final with Guehrer's 2009 Australian mark of 56.97 firmly in her sights.
And if her time of 31.13 in the heats of the 50m breaststroke is any indication then her 100 and 200 individual medley times are going to be world class.
Seebohm is already the fifth fastest all-time over 100IM - a result from the "super suit" era - so anything close to her 58.50 will be outstanding.
She will also contest the 200 IM, the 50 and 200m backstroke and the 100 and 200m freestyle as she continues her build up to next month's Pan Pacs in Irvine, the Commonwealth Games in October and December's FINA World Short Course Championships in Dubai.
If things go according to plan, Seebohm will also feature in the 100m IM and 100m freestyle semi-finals tonight.
Brown always knew he had a "live one" in Seebohm and it will be just a matter of sifting through the best program of a young woman who could well be one everyone's lips come the 2012 Olympic year.
In other major highlights last night:
- Olympic bronze medallist from the 4x200m freestyle in Beijing Nick Ffrost (51.13; 1:45.12) added the 200m short course title to his long course counterpart, hanging on to beat defending champion Tommaso D'Orsogna (51.28, 1:45.22) and Kyle Richardson (51.67; 1:45.50).
- Sam Hamill won her maiden 400IM title (4:32.58) after finishing second to Felicity Galvez in the 200m butterfly. Galvez will contest her fourth World SC Champs after clocking 2:04.76, Hamill (2:06.18) and World LC champion Jess Schipper (2:07.12).
Tonight's other finals will be the men's 400IM, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly and the women's 50m breaststroke and 800m freestyle.
Australia will name a team of 30 Dolphins to contest this year's FINA World Championships when the five-day meet concludes on Sunday night. - Ian Hanson (Oceania correspondent, FINA Aquatics Magazine).