SYDNEY, Australia, March 28. THE 50 free moved into unfathomable territory today at the Australian Trials as Eamon Sullivan dropped his world record even further at the Australian Trials.
Sullivan stunned the swimming world when he clocked a time off 21.28 in the finals of the event at the Australian Trials after first reclaiming the record from Alain Bernard with a 21.41 during semifinals just yesterday.
With his three separate progressions of the record, Sullivan tied Matt Biondi for second all time. Only Tom Jager has dropped the record on more occasions (six times). Should Sullivan follow the same arc as Jager, a time in the 20s should be assured.
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"It was great to improve on the semi-final and step up in the final which is obviously what I'm going to have to do come Beijing," Sullivan told Swimming Australia. "Just improving every swim I did, I think I've swum faster in every final I've done for the last couple of years so I'm very, very happy to execute what my coach told me to do tonight."
Sullivan's journey is remarkable as only a year ago his best time had been just north of 22.00.
With the likes of Sullivan destroying the 50 free over long course, and Cesar Cielo making 18 routine in the 50 free over short course yards, Beijing should see some incredible swimming.
World Record Progression
Courtesy of USA Swimming
23.70 Klaus Steinback FRG Freiburg 7/23/1979
23.66 Chris Cavanaugh USA Amersfoort 2/2/1980
22.83p Bruce Stahl USA Austin 4/10/1980
22.83p Joe Bottom USA Honolulu 8/15/1980
22.71 Joe Bottom USA Honolulu 8/15/1980
22.54p Robin Leamy USA Brown Deer 8/15/1981
22.52 Dano Halsall SUI Bellinzona 7/21/1985
22.40 Tom Jager USA Austin 12/6/1985
22.33 Matt Biondi USA Orlando 6/26/1986
22.33 Matt Biondi USA Clovis 7/30/1987
22.32* Tom Jager USA Brisbane 8/13/1987
22.23 Tom Jager USA Orlando 3/25/1988
22.14 Matt Biondi USA Seoul 9/24/1988
22.12 Tom Jager USA Tokyo 8/20/1989
21.98p Tom Jager USA Nashville 3/24/1990
21.81 Tom Jager USA Nashville 3/24/1990
21.64 Alexander Popov RUS Moscow 6/1/2000
21.56 Eamon Sullivan AUS Sopac 2/17/2008
21.50sf Alain Bernard FRA Eindhoven 3/23/2008
21.41sf Eamon Sullivan AUS Sydney 3/27/2008
21.28 Eamon Sullivan AUS Sydney 3/28/2008
Women's 200 back finals
Meagen Nay, who broke the Australian record during semis, took aim at the Commonwealth record in the women's 200 back to smash the record with a 2:08.55. She had company as Belinda Hocking rocketed into second with a swift time of 2:08.93. Teenage prodigy Emily Seebohm missed adding another Beijing swim with a third-place 2:10.10.
"That was one of the best races of my life, I didn't feel my shoulder and everything just kind of came together," Nay told Swimming Australia.
Men's 100 fly finals
Andrew Lauterstein qualified for Beijing in the 100 fly when he won the event in 51.91, only .1 seconds off Michael Klim's 1999 Commonwealth record of 51.81. Adam Pine, meanwhile, placed second in 52.13.
"I've never put so much effort into anything in my life, even though I've only been around for years," Lauterstein told Swimming Australia.
Women's 800 free finals
Kylie Palmer dominated the women's distance event with a time of 8:24.30, just more than a second off the 1988 Commonwealth record of 8:22.93 set by Julie McDonald. Melissa Gorman grabbed second place with a time of 8:36.23.
Women's 50 free semis
Teenage phenom Cate Campbell snatched the Commonwealth record with a sterling time of 24.30 to lead qualifying. Alice Mills (24.97), Libby Trickett (25.07) and Sophie Edington (25.12) rounded out the top four.
Men's 50 breast finals
Brenton Rickard notched a lifetime-best effort of 27.30 to set the Commonwealth record by more than half-a-second, while Christian Sprenger clocked a 28.36 to finish second, just ahead of Karl Wurzer's 28.84. Rickard's time actually came close to Oleg Lisogor's world record of 27.18.
"To do it by half a second and come so close to the world record was honestly, really, really surprising," Rickard told Swimming Australia. "It was good that the selection events have finished and the pressure was over and I could just relax, take my time with warm-ups and just get in there and have a go."
Women's 50 fly finals
Marieke Guehrer snared the sprint fly title when she hit the pad in 26.48, while Danni Miatke placed second in 26.61.
Men's 50 back semis
Ashley Delaney topped qualifying with a time of 25.34, while Matt Welsh (25.62), Hayden Stoeckel (25.90) and Robert Hurley (26.12) will accompany Delaney in the center of the pool during finals.
Women's 50 breast semis
With Leisel Jones sitting out the sprint event, Tarnee White owned the semifinal round with a time of 30.60, just off Jade Edmistone's world record time of 30.31. Edmistone, meanwhile, placed second in 31.61 with Sarah Katsoulis (31.93) and Kristy Morrison (32.10) comprising the rest of the top four spots.
Women's 400 medley relay
Grace Loh (1:03.10), Leisel Jones (1:06.50), Alanna Tanner (1:02.66) and Shayne Reese (55.90) won the event in 4:08.16.
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Reaction Time Comments
March 28, 2008 just a thought... are officials going to see how much this new suit is dropping times and possibly not keep the records? For the 50 free record to drop .36 of a sec. in the past yr and before that it dropped only .17sec in 10 yrs in ridiculous Submitted by: WUswimmer
March 28, 2008 Hard to say. Between 1980 and 1990, it went down 1.68 seconds. Between 1990 and 2000, it went down .34. It's been a decade since the record was broken, and in my mind it's not unreal for it to drop .36 after 10 years. What IS a little hard to believe is the guy breaking this record. Pretty big time drops for Sullivan and his girlfriend, Rice. Raises other questions in my mind. Submitted by: Swimmer Bill
March 28, 2008 yeah, the question is how fast would Tom Jager and Alex Popov swim in this swimsuit... Submitted by: TomMaster
March 28, 2008 Actually, that's not my question. My question is: how can a world ranked swimmer who dropped 5/10ths a few years back but didn't improve over the last two years suddenly drop 72/100ths? It would be difficult to believe it was just the LZR. Submitted by: Swimmer Bill
March 28, 2008 Given the rash of WR being set in the last two weeks, the possibility occurs to me that in this Olympic year, swimmers have been quadrenalized. By that I mean that they have been training predominantly aerobically and now more speed is part of the training. Submitted by: CoachTed
March 28, 2008 I don't think its fair to imply some kind of foul play by Sullivan. Plenty of swimmers will plateau in their times for a year or so, unable to better any of them, and then all of a sudden cut a large chunk of time off their swims. Look at Phelps and the 200 fly. And Lochte in the 200 back. Brendan Hansen went two years before he was able to lower his 100 and 200 breast WR's. Submitted by: Sarah E
March 28, 2008 the 50 free is a whole different story though. Eamon just last year was going 22.1 and now within a yr he has almost dropped a full second in a 50 whenever 22.1 was world class at the time. its just hard to believe, and just like gary hall has suggested, we all know its not right to point the finger at someone and say they have cheated, but it has gotten to that point in our world with all athletes being caught. we just need to try to keep this sport clean and not end up like other sports. Submitted by: WUswimmer
March 28, 2008 n response to SwimmerBill's comments that Eamon Sullivan didn't improve for a couple of years before his recent world records - that's rubbish. He swam his PB 22.00 in Dec 06 and then 22.05 at the Worlds in March 07 - for the remainder of 2007 there were no major meets and he, like swimmers all over the world would have been in very hard work preparing for 2008. Now its an Olympic year and he is in peak form for the Aussie trials and in a new, fast suit. World records never last forever - who would have believed 7 years ago that Michael Phelps would be swimming 1.52.0 for 200 fly or 1.54 for 200 medley.
Finally, Rice and Sullivan train a continent apart - Rice in Brisbane and Sullivan in Perth - they are a long distance couple who both happen to swim fast. Submitted by: markb
March 29, 2008 It seems to be the norm these days to claim that someone has taken drugs after a good swim. That is so sad. Actually these sort of comments I expect to see in youtube not in here.
The drug accusations are completely false, just looking at him physically and you know drugs isn't involved. Eamon Sullivan is just pure talent and hard work, he is renowned for his fanatical training regime.
The Australian Swimming fraternity is a powerhouse with many other countries now looking to how they develop their swimmers. It is very very unlikely that drug users would slip through this system as it is frowned apon by everyone.
To accuse swimmers at this level of drug use in the Australian team are uninformed hacks or just plain bad sports or both. Submitted by: MickH
March 29, 2008 After reading a little more about Sullivan, I'm actually more interested in learning about the evolution of his technique over the last year or two.
It would be interesting to know if there was a dramatic rethinking of his stroke and a change to windmill recovery, similar to that of Inky de Bruijn in 1999/2000.
"Windmill Revolution" - an article written for Swimming Technique in 2004 - was a revelation for me because the interviews with Inky, Bergen, Janet Evans, Bud McAllister, etc., left me feeling there was a whole discussion the world never had about Inky. Submitted by: Swimmer Bill
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