Lane 9 News Archive: Australian Short Course Championships: Matt Welsh, Leith Brodie, Shayne Reese Earn Top Honors

Australian Short Course Championships: Matt Welsh, Leith Brodie, Shayne Reese Earn Top Honors -- September 1, 2007

MELBOURNE, Australia, September 1. MATT Welsh took his National short course titles tally to 31, Leith Brodie smashed his own Australian record and Shayne Reese just missed a Commonwealth mark during a thrilling second-to-last night of finals at the Telstra Australian Short Course Swimming Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Special thanks to David Lyall of Swimming Australia for providing the following report.

First up Welsh (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) won his 30th title, the 50 meter backstroke, in a slick 23.92 before returning to the water less than half an hour later to claim number title 31, the 50m butterfly in 23.26.

The backstroke was Welsh's ninth on the trot for the event and both victories coming after he set a new Commonwealth record in winning the 100m backstroke two night's ago.

The mercurial sprinter has been chasing down his age with every title at this meet and now at 30 he has more gold than years with the 200m backstroke tomorrow night still to come.

On a helter-skelter program, Brodie (Albany Creek, QLD) set his second Australian record in as many nights by clocking 53.71 in the 100m individual medley, Reese attacked Brooke Hanson's Commonwealth record of 2:09.81 in the women's 200m IM, falling agonizingly short with her time of 2:09.85 but still snared the scalp of dual Commonwealth champion Stephanie Rice (St Peters Western, QLD) (2:10.42) along the way.

But the adoring Melbourne crowd was enamored by local boy Welsh, giving him not one, but two standing ovations.

Afterwards the triple Olympic medalist was buoyant, if not a little surprised by his swims and already looking to the Selection Trials for the 2008 Australian Olympic Team in Sydney next March.

"I didn't know how my sprint side of things was going. But I really wanted to get out there and give it a shot," Welsh said. "I wouldn't say that I was overly confident with the butterfly but I knew that I could do it. I did it at Worlds (in 2006). (But) I feel like I will be ready (for the Olympic Trials). I wouldn't say that I'm ready to get up and do the trials now, but when they're scheduled I'll be ready, for sure."

In other events, Leisel Jones (Carey Aquatic, VIC) shadowed her own world record in the 100m breaststroke - finishing with history's third fastest swim of 1:04.50, while Multi-Disability event athletes Annabelle Williams (Pro-Ma Miami, QLD) and Matt Cowdrey (Norwood, SA) broke world records in their classifications.

Tomorrow night's program will be even hotter with Grant Hackett (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) swimming the 1500m freestyle, Libby Lenton (Commercial, QLD) in two individual finals before spearheading a special 4x100m freestyle world record attempt with Reese, Alice Mills (Chandler, QLD) and Melanie Schlanger (Commercial, QLD).

Click here to view event results PDF file.

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