Australian Short Course Championships: Grant Hackett Puts Crowd into Frenzy with Second-Fastest 800 Free

MELBOURNE, Australia, August 29. IN morning competition at the Australian Short Course Championships, world-record holder Grant Hackett, fresh off his long course victory in the 1500 free at the Japan International Swim Meet, just missed his 2001 world mark in the short course 800 free by more than 2.5 seconds to record the second-fastest time in the history of the event. Special thanks to Ian Hanson of Swimming Australia for providing the following report on the day's action.

The 27-year-old, who is aiming for his third straight Olympic 1500 free gold medal in Beijing next year, clocked a time of 7:27.81 seconds – compared to his time of 7:25.28, set in Perth after the FINA World Championships.

"I'm disappointed not to get the record but happy with the time," Hackett said after the race. "I think maybe swimming the 200 meters freestyle heat earlier in the day took the edge off me and maybe cost me the world record. But I can't be disappointed with the time or the effort – it was certainly a great chance to get out and see how fast I could go."

Hackett certainly gave the large crowd something to cheer about, twice dipping under world record pace at the 300 and 400 meter marks – splitting at the half-way mark in 3:41.59.

In other first-day action, Kenrick Monk took another quantum leap towards next year's Beijing Olympics while Stephanie Rice added her second Commonwealth record in two weeks.

Monk, 19, held on to beat Australian team captain Hackett – one of the men he has often dreamed about beating in the 200 freestyle final.

Fresh from his maiden international victory in the same event at last week's Japan International Swim Meet, Monk led from the start and as hard as Hackett tried, he could not quite catch the "man mountain" from Sydney, who stopped the clock at 1:43.27 – a full second personal best.

The only Australians to have swum faster are world record holder Ian Thorpe (1:41.10) and Hackett (1:42.48). Hackett, after his stunning 800 time, backed up to push Monk all the way to the wall in 1:43.45, with Monk's fellow young guns 20-year-olds Kirk Palmer (1:44.17) third and Grant Brits (1:44.35) fourth.There were also encouraging signs for Athens Olympian Nicholas Sprenger, who was fifth in 1:44.93.

"That was a massive personal best and a major confidence booster to beat Grant," said Monk, fourth behind Michael Phelps at this year's FINA World Championships. "I knew Grant would come at me over the final stages – he showed that in the heats so I had to be quicker through the middle 100 meters. I learned in Japan that I have to swim my own races and that's what I tried to do tonight."

Meanwhile Commonwealth Games golden girl, Rice continued on her winning ways, breaking the Commonwealth record in the 400 meters individual medley, clocking a time of 4:32.48 – a second-and-a-half faster than Lara Carroll's mark of 4:34.08 set in 2005.

Just last week in Japan, Rice smashed Jennifer Reilly's Commonwealth long course record when she finished second to Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.

Tonight she admitted she has now warmed to short course swimming.

"It's not a chore anymore – I'm learning more about short course swimming and that was actually a 10 second personal best – but for me long course still rules," said Rice.

In the women's 200m butterfly final. Athens Olympian Felicity Galvez gave Chinese girl Yang Yu's world record a real nudge, stopping the clock at 2:04.74 – 0.70 outside the 2004 world mark and 0.58 outside Susie O'Neill's Commonwealth record of 2:04.16. Galvez cleared out on youngest Samantha Hamill (2:07.01) with an ailing Jessicah Schipper third in 2:07.02.

World records tumbled in the Multi Disability events with Paralympic "super boys" Matthew Cowdrey and Peter Leek and future Paralympian Annabelle Williams all establishing new world records in finishing first and second in the 100m freestyle. Cowdrey, one of the stars of the 2006 Commonwealth Games with his two gold medals clocked a stunning 54.42, while Leek stopped the clock at 59.79. Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Williams clocked her first world record in winning the 100 freestyle, clocking 1:05.13. Her Games team mate Lichelle Clarke (Warragul Vic) won silver in 1:13.80 with Prue Watt (Nu Swim, NSW) third in 1:02.48.

Places in Multi Disability events are calculated on the percentage of the world records in the respective classifications.

Hackett completed a successful day in the pool at his new home when he anchored the Melbourne Vicentre 400 freestyle relay team to victory when he split 48.57 to hold off a powering Kenrick Monk (SOPAC Swim Club) 47.63. Patrick Murphy led off for Melbourne Vicentre in 49.33, followed by Matt Targett (47.57) and Michael Papaioannou (49.62) for a combined time of 3:14.90, followed by SOPAC (3:17.55) and Yeronga Park (3:17.75).

Albany Creek with Kylie Palmer leading off in 1:56.11 (seventh fastest All-Time by an Australian), anchored by Bronte Barratt (1:55.67) and well supported by Sarah Hoschke-Edwards (2:01.47) and Morgan Lee-Barnes (2:01.86) set a new Australian Club record of 7:55.12 in the women's 800 free relay.

Click Here to view results PDF file.

Name*

Email*

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