Alicia Coutts Doubles Up On Final Night; Kosuke Hagino Controversy

SYDNEY, Australia, March 17. WHILE Japan kept putting up monster times at the New South Wales Open, Alicia Coutts continued to reel in event wins as she pushed her meet tally to six with a double this evening.

Alicia Coutts raced to her fifth title of the meet with a victorious 32.01 in the women's 50-meter breast. Sally Foster touched a bit behind her with a 32.19. Samantha Marshall rounded out the podium in the sprint breast with a third-place time of 32.28.

Coutts' sixth title came by way of a 2:11.13 in the women's 200-meter IM, as she blitzed the field in the event. Aisling Scott touched well back in second with a 2:16.40, while Namiki Ueda finished third in 2:17.13.

In a controversial turn of events, Kosuke Hagino swam a 4:22 in men's 400-meter IM prelims according to Twitter reports by Kenneth To (see below), but was disqualified from finals for some administrative error. The confusing issue is that Hagino is not listed as disqualified in the official results, now was his prelim time recorded as having occurred.

@tomfraserholmes nope. he went 4:22 easy as too, prob would have gone sub-4:11 tonight if they'd let him swim it!

— Kenneth To (@kennethkhto) March 17, 2013

Travis Mahoney went on to win the event in 4:24.42, while Jared Gilliland (4:25.15) and To (4:31.21) finished second and third.

Japan's Takeshi Matsuda took down crowd favorite Kenneth To in the men's 100-meter fly, 52.76 to 53.29, while Yuta Kimura deadheated with Tommaso D'Orsogna for third with matching 53.85s. Meanwhile, Japan's Akihiro Yamaguchi continued to demonstrate his breaststroke dominance with a 2:12.23 to win the men's 200-meter breast. Lennard Bremer finished three seconds behind with a 2:15.70. Jeremy Meyer wound up third in 2:16.88.

Japan's Aya Terakawa blasted the women's 50-meter back with a time of 27.89, just half-a-second off the textile best of Gao Chang (27.45) from 2010. Emily Seebohm placed second in 28.40, while Coutts finished third in 28.51. Japan's Ryosuke Irie and Kosuke Hagino battled in a backstroke event again, with Irie remaining on top, 53.43 to 53.58, in the 100-meter back. Daniel Arnamnart took third in 54.52.

Ellen Gandy dominated the women's 200-meter fly with a time of 2:11.01, finishing more than a second ahead of Samantha Hamill's second-place effort of 2:12.37. Madeline Groves took home third-place honors in 2:12.49, while Nicole Mee also posted a 2:12 with a fourth-place 2:12.99.

Following a 400-meter free victory last night, Bronte Barratt added the 200-meter free title to her resume with a 1:57.51. That eclipsed the New South Wales record of 1:58.00 set by Felicity Galvez in 2008, but was not enough to beat Barratt's All-Comers records of 1:56.60 also from 2008. Japan's Haruka Ueda took second in 1:59.07, while Kylie Palmer earned third in 1:59.56. Emma McKeon also cleared 2:00 with a fourth-place 1:59.97.

In the always fun-to-watch men's 50-meter free, the Aboods got the better of James Magnussen. Andrew won the splash-and-dash in 22.38, while Matthew matched Magnussen as the two tied for second with 22.56s. Cameron McEvoy wound up fourth in 22.56.

In multi-class events, Matt Levy was listed first in the men's 100-meter free with a 1:03.28, while Taylor Corry was listed ahead of reigning Swimming World Disabled Swimmer of the Year Jacqui Freney in the women's 100-meter free, 1:02.73 to 1:09.34.

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