Australia Pours On Steam in Third Day of Junior Pan Pacs

By Jason Marsteller

MAUI, Hawaii, January 13. TEAM Aussie continued to pound the rest of the field in the third day of long course meter competition at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii on Saturday.

By the end of the day, Australia pushed its top medal tally to 31 with nearly half (15) of the gold variety. Meanwhile, the United States stood in second with 21 medals after doubling its gold tally to four. Japan finished the day in third with 16 medals after also doubling up in gold with four wins overall.

Overall, four meet records fell by the wayside as 18-year-old Nic Donald of Australia (men's 400 free), 17-year-old Tomoyo Fukuda of Japan (women's 200 back), 17-year-old Cory Chitwood of the U.S. (men's 200 back) and the Aussie women's 400 freestyle relay all cleared previous meet standards.

Women's 400-meter freestyle
16-year-old Amelia Evatt-Davey of Australia came from behind to win her second gold of the meet with a time of 4:12.22 to nip compatriot 17-year-old Lorren Sellwood in a head-to-head battle. Sellwood hit the wall second in 4:12.40 after watching her .79 second advantage at the 350-meter mark disappear when Evatt-Davey kicked into high gear with a 29.60 final 50 split. Evatt-Davey's final 50 beat Sellwood's (30.57) by nearly a second.

The United States offered up 15-year-old Katie Gardocki for bronze with a time of 4:15.14.

Men's 400-meter freestyle
18-year-old Australian Nic Donald nabbed his third individual gold of the meet chopped a second off the previous meet record with a gold-winning time of 3:51.56. That clocking erased the 3:52.66 set by Japan's Sho Uchida on Jan. 8, 2005.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Scott Clary of the United States garnered silver with a time of 3:55.10. 17-year-old Reece Turner pocketed bronze for Australia in 3:55.81.

After absorbing Turner's initial surge in the first 100 meters where Turner touched ahead of Donald, 56.27 – 56.57, Donald made his move with consistent 29.4 splits until dropping into the high 28s the rest of the race.

Women's 100-meter butterfly
14-year-old Felicia Lee gave the United States its third gold of the meet with a blazing time of 59.99. Notably, Lee came up just .07 seconds shy of taking down Mary T. Meagher's 18-year-old National Age Group record of 59.71 set in 1979 (four years before Lee was born) with a prelim time of 59.78.

Lee back-halfed the race as she powered past 15-year-old Samantha Hamill of Australia (1:00.72) and 15-year-old Natsuki Akiyama (1:00.75), who placed second and third, respectively. Lee actually trailed three swimmers at the 50 with a split of 29.08, but clearly had much more in the tank over the final 50 with a split of 30.91.

Men's 100-meter butterfly
17-year-old Kazuki Dobayashi of Japan also had to demonstrate a little come-back ability in the 100 fly as he got his hand to the wall first in 53.84. He actually witnessed Sam Ashby (53.96) and Garth Kates (54.12) of Australia touch in front of him in the initial 50 meters with Ashby ahead by .1 seconds and Kates in front by .34 seconds as Dobayashi clocked a 25.58 first half.

Dobayashi, however, shifted into high gear in the back half with a final split of 28.26 to claim victory.

Women's 200-meter backstroke
A trio of swimmers eclipsed the meet record posted during prelims by eventual gold medalist Tomoyo Fukuda of Japan. The 17-year-old set the final standard with a time of 2:12.11 for Japan's second crown of the day and fourth overall.

15-year-old Mary Beck of the United States captured silver in 2:12.23, while Meagen Nay of Australia took bronze in 2:12.57 for the Aussies' 29th medal overall.

For one of the first times of the finals session, a swimmer led wire-to-wire as Fukuda clocked a 1:04.00 at the 100 and never looked back.

Men's 200-meter backstroke
The United States went 1-2 in the 200 back as both Americans shattered the meet record of 2:01.97 set by Japan's Shohei Uchida n Jan. 8, 2005.

17-year-old Cory Chitwood gathered the fourth gold for the U.S. in 2:00.67, while 16-year-old Matt Thompson clocked a silver-winning time of 2:00.81.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Kurt Bassett chipped in New Zealand's second medal of the meet with a time of 2:02.95 for bronze.

Women's 400-meter freestyle relay
Australia snared its third title of the day with a convincing meet-record time of 3:45.17 from the quartet of Amelia Evatt-Davey, Olivia Halicek, Meagen Nay and Ellese Zalewski. That performance obliterated the former standard of 3:48.08 set by the Aussies on Jan. 8, 2005.

The Aussies win came from what usually wins for any relay – consistency. All four legs posted splits in the 56 range. Evatt-Davey went 56.20, while Halicek clocked a 56.10, Nay touched in 56.86 and Zalewski anchored a 56.55.

Japan's team of Misaki Yamaguchi, Tomoe Ono, Hiro Tanaka and Yayoi Matsumoto picked up silver in 3:48.04, while the United States' contingent of Christel Simms, Samantha Tucker, Liz Koselka and Allison Schmitt rounded out the podium with a time of 3:48.43.

Men's 400-meter freestyle relay
Team Aussie continued its amazing run through the international junior team ranks with its fourth gold of the day. The foursome of Bobby Jovanovich, Robert Hurley, Daniel Arnamnart and Reece Turner claimed the title in 3:25.30.

Meanwhile, the United States' squad of Buddy Turner, Cody Weik, Truman Liang and Scott Clary came in with a silver-winning effort of 3:26.27.

The race mostly hinged on the third leg as the teams were in a near dead-heat with Australia leading 1:42.95 to 1:42.96 at the 200-meter mark. Arnamnart said "Forget about it" with his third-leg time of 50.79 – the fastest of the race, to kill any chances of a United States' triumph.

Japan's team of Kazuki Dobayashi, Yoshinori Muramatsu, Kenichi Teranishi and Takuya Kobayashi closed out the medals for the day with a bronze-winning time of 3:26.76.

Results: 2007 Jr Pan Pacific Swimming Championships – (01-11-2007 – 01-14-2007)

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