Australian Youth Olympic Festival Kicks Off

By Jason Marsteller

SYDNEY, Australia, January 18. THE Australian junior team kept the ball rolling from a dominant effort at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships last weekend with a strong first day of long course competition at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival. The Aussies won eight of the 18 available medals as well as three of the six gold medals.

The event, held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center, features some of the top junior team talent from the Pacific Rim. Overall, a pair of meet records fell on the first day as 14-year-old Tang Yi of China snagged the women's 200 free standard and 15-year-old Samantha Hamill of Australia shot down a Jessicah Schipper record in the women's 200 fly.

Women's 200 freestyle
China's Tang Yi, 14, won the first medal of the meet with a meet-record time of 2:00.53 in the 200 free. She nipped 15-year-old Australian Ellese Zalewski (2:00.57), fresh off a great Junior Pan Pacs, by a scant .04 seconds. 14-year-old Ellen Fullerton of Australia rounded out the podium in 2:03.71.

Tang saved the best for last as she trailed by .07 seconds at the 150-meter mark. Heading down the stretch, Tang posted a 30.29 split against Zalewski's 30.40 to overcome the slight deficit.

Tang's time eclipsed the former meet standard of 2:01.07 set by Kate Krywulyez of Australia on Jan. 14, 2001.

Men's 200 freestyle
15-year-old Daniel Smith of Australia led an Aussie quinella with a first-place time of 1:53.64. That effort topped the second-place time of 1:55.27 posted by fellow Aussie 16-year-old Taylor Hardy. 16-year-old Yuan Ping of Chinese Taipei scored bronze right behind in 1:55.35.

Smith led wire-to-wire as he built an initial half-second lead at the 50 and continued to add to that advantage throughout the race.

Women's 100 backstroke
Australia went 1-3 in the 100 back as 16-year-old Belinda Hocking easily won the two-lap event in 1:02.67. Her compatriot 15-year-old Charlotte Clarke placed third in 1:04.28, while 16-year-old Zhou Yanxin of China split the difference with a 1:03.39 for silver.

Men's 100 backstroke
New Zealand broke into the win column with 16-year-old Daniel Bell touching in 58.74, just ahead of 16-year-old Evan Buck of Canada's silver-winning time of 58.88. 14-year-old Takahiro Yamazaki of Japan closed out the top three in 58.92.

Women's 200 butterfly
15-year-old Samantha Hamill of Australia, riding high after a superb run at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships last weekend, started the meet of strong with a meet-record time of 2:11.52 in the 200 fly. That performance demonstrated that she may very well be the heir apparent to world record holder Jessicah Schipper as she edged the 2:11.98 Schipper set at the event on Jan. 9, 2003.

Her time destroyed the second-place effort of 2:14.04 clocked by 16-year-old Guo Fan of China and her countrywoman 15-year-old Ha Sinan's third-place 2:14.43.

Men's 200 butterfly
Japan crashed the gold-medal party when 15-year-old Yosuke Mori clocked a gold-winning time of 2:00.68 in the 200 fly. He cruised by silver-winning 16-year-old Chen Weiwu of China (2:02.12), while 16-year-old Jack Nunn of Australia picked up a distant third in 2:05.72.

Click Here to view PDF results file.

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