Cate Campbell Sizzles at Australian Grand Prix

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

Australia’s relay golden girls led the way on the final night of the Swimming Australia Grand Prix in Canberra tonight with reigning world champion Cate Campbell producing a sizzling swim to win an all-star 100m freestyle final in a time that would have won this event at the 2012 Olympics.

Campbell has been in brilliant form all weekend after a 10-day altitude training camp in Thredbo and she left the best till last with a world class 100m time of 53.00 secs (25.56) – a time that would have dead-heated for gold in the 2012 London Olympics.

The world’s number one female freestyle sprinter powered down the final 50 metres to record a time even she was surprised with – taking the win over sister Bronte 53.89 (25.85), Emma McKeon 54.47 (26.52) and Brittany Elmslie 54.64 (26.75) – who have all been part of Australia’s gold medal or world record breaking relay teams over the past three years.

“I am absolutely thrilled with my performances here this weekend, they have been above and beyond what I thought I was capable of,” said Campbell.

“I have only missed one gym session in this preparation and that time (53 secs) is the fastest I’ve swum at this stage of any previous preparation.

“I’m actually really, really surprised and actually impressed with my ability to back up. I did what (coach) Simon (Cusack) told me to do and that was to back end it more.

“I will do whatever I can to be as ready as I possibly can come Kazan (World Championships) –remembering that Rio is very much the focus.

“This meet has a great format, it gives people a good chance to get some good training in which I think is very important at this time of the year.

“You don’t want to be just racing because then you can miss out on those valuable training attributes.

“So making sure that everyone had sort of a training set in the morning and then kind of a time trial format at night, adds a bit of spice and a bit of flavour and makes sure that everyone gets some good valuable training in as opposed to just racing.

“They have provided some really great competition, I have really enjoyed kind of playing charades with the Japanese girls because we don’t speak the same language, so there’s a lot of charades going on at the moment.

“They’re a great team and great people to get to know and I can’t wait to spend some more time with them especially in the lead up to the 2020 Olympics.”

Other highlights included:

– Japan’s Kosuke Hagino’s Grand Prix record to win the 200m individual medley in 1:57.79, ahead of Team mate Daiya Seto (1:58.37) and Australia’s Clyde Lewis (2:06.40).

– Emily Seebohm’s Grand prix record of 59.39 in the women’s 100m backstroke, ahead of team mate Madison Wilson (59.94) and Minna Atherton (1:02.54).

– Jessica Ashwood’s Grand Prix record to win the 400m freestyle in 4:08.19 from Leah Neale (4:14.52) and Chihiro Igarashi (JPN) 4:15.10.

– Yashuhiro Koseki’s Grand Prix record in the 100m breaststroke in 1:00.83 ahead of Ryo Tateishi (1:01.65) and Christian Sprenger (1:02.34).

– Cameron McEvoy’s 1:48.68 in the 200m freestyle ahead of Yuki Kobori (1:48.73) and Kurt Herzog (AUS) 1:49.35.
– Japan’s Ryosuke Irie and his Grand Prix record in the 200m backstroke in 1:55.71, with Australia’s Mitch Larkin an impressive 1:56.75 for second and Masaki Kaneko (JAP) 2:01.00 third.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

2015 Swimming Australia Grand Prix #1, Live Results – Results

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