Australian Short Course Championships, Day One Prelims: James Magnussen Off To Flying Start In 100m Freestyle as Libby Trickett Qualifies For Two Finals

By Ian Hanson Chief Australian Correspondent

ADELAIDE, South Australia, July 1. NSW north coast-born freestyle sprint star James Magnussen will be hunting for a blue ribband double tonight when he lines up against defending champion Matt Abood in the final of the 100m freestyle at the 2011 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre tonight.

The 20-year-old, who won the coveted Open championship in March, scorched up the new multi-million pool in a personal best time of 46.82 seconds – the equal second fastest ever by an Australian with Olympic silver medallist Eamon Sullivan, who missed the final, finishing 17th in 49.52.

Magnussen, who left the NSW country town of Port Macquarie to train under Brant Best at Macquarie University in Sydney, is Australia's latest freestyle sprint hope and he will be looking to crank out a another personal best tonight in the countdown to next month's FINA World Championships in Shanghai.

In other highlights of today's opening heats session World record holder and Olympic champion Libby Trickett kick-started her comeback to competitive swimming in earnest, qualifying for both the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle finals, just two days after missing a belated chance to make the Shanghai relay squad.

Trickett is the fifth fastest qualifier for the 100m freestyle in 54.41 with Melbourne Vicentre's Jessicah Morrison the quickest in 54.03 in a final that also includes latest World Championship team member Marieke Guehrer, fellow Olympians Mel Schlanger and Cate Campbell and Commonwealth 50m champion Yolane Kukla.

Trickett will also feature in the 50m butterfly final after sneaking into lane eight in 27.18. World long course champion and World Cup star Guehrer is the fastest in 26.06.

Duelling Olympic breaststrokers and world record holders Christian Sprenger (27.41) and Brenton Rickard (27.68) in the men's 50m and rising star Leiston Pickett (1:06.33) and the incomparable Leisel Jones (1:06.94) in the women's 100m will again go head to head respectively in two enthralling finals.

In the absence of Nick D'Arcy the 200m butterfly will see the return of defending champion Chris Wright who is the fastest qualifier in 1:54.81, against former training partner and World Championship team member Jayden Hadler (1:55.79) and 2009 World Championship team member Lachlan Staples (1:57.15).

The program will also feature the timed finals for the men's 400m freestyle and the women's 800m freestyle, the women's 400IM, women's 200m backstroke and men's 50m backstroke as well as the Multi-Class events for the 50 and 100m freestyle and 200 IM for men and women.

Finals start at 5:30pm EST.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x