Australian Long Course Championships: Disqualification Heartache for Yolane Kukla at Aussie Swim Champs

By Ian Hanson

SYDNEY, Australia, March 18. THERE was heartache for Australia's latest wonderkid Yolane Kukla when she was disqualified for a false start in the final of the 100m freestyle on night three of the Australian Championships in Sydney tonight.

Twenty-four hours after winning her first National open gold medal, upsetting Marieke Guehrer in the 50m butterfly final, the 14-year-old was the street tip to win the blue riband freestyle final.

And after touching the wall first she had to suffer the upset of seeing a DQ against her name, handing the title to emerging all-rounder, Australia's Olympic medley relay gold medallist Emily Seebohm.

Here is a summary of the first four finals.

Men's 200m backstroke
South Australia's AIS-based Hayden Stoeckel (1:58.04) set the field a merry chase to lead all the way to finish ahead of his fast finishing Olympic team mate Ashley Delaney (1:58.06) with newcomer Braiden Camm claiming his first open medal with the bronze in 2:00.51. Stoeckel went through the 100m split in 56.05 – a full second ahead of Delaney. It followed Stoeckel's win last night in the 50m and he will start favourite to complete the treble that Delaney won last year.

Women's 100m freestyle
With the shock disqualification to Yolane Kukla for breaking at the start, it was backstroking-medley miss Emily Seebohm who joined the long list of greats to have won the 100m freestyle crown, including Olympic golden girls Libby Trickett, Jodie Henry, Shane Gould and Dawn Fraser. Seebohm actually tipped out another gold medallist in Susie O'Neill from the all-time top ten, with her personal best time of 54.70. Taking silver was fellow IM specialist Alicia Coutts (54.86) with Alice Mills back on the winners dais (55.32) in third. Olympian Angie Bainbridge (55.40) was fourth, Kelly Stubbins (55.44) fifth, Bronte Barratt (55.51) sixth and Sally Foster (55.58) seventh.

Women's 200m breaststroke
Breaststroke queen Leisel Jones is back in a big way, winning the 200m breaststroke for the ninth time, in 2:23.45 from Sarah Katsoulis (2:25.35) and teenager Tessa Wallace third in 2:28.67.

Men's 50m butterfly
The Comeback is complete! Geoff Huegill at 31 has qualified for his third Commonwealth Games team with a sizzling 23.46 to beat NSWIS team mates Olympic bronze medallist Andrew Lauterstein (23.82) and rising star Mitchell Patterson (23.89).

ASCTA Podcast
On today's show, Todd speaks with the Head Coach of the AIS Paralympic Swimming Program, Graeme Carroll, and Coach of 14 year-old sensation Yolane Kukla, Michael Palfery. The podcast also contains all the highlights and key times from the Day 2 night finals and Day 3 heats.

Day 3 Podcast

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