Emily Seebohm On A Roll With Third Gold Medal at Aussie Short Course Nationals

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

ADELAIDE – Dual Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm added her third gold medal of the meet with an all-the-way victory in the 200m individual medley on night four of the Australian Short Course Swimming Championships at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre in Adelaide tonight.

Seebohm (Nudgee Brothers, QLD) used all her strength to swim away from the field in the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke legs, hanging on in the freestyle to win in a time of 2:07.54.

She proved too powerful for training partner Ellen Fullerton (2:09.84) with Aisling Scott (Indooroopilly) third in 2:10.26.

The win comes after her victories in the 100m backstroke in a new Commonwealth record and 100m individual medley earlier in the meet.

This gold medal also takes her overall individual Australian Short Course gold medal tally to 11, since her first titles – the 50 and 100m backstroke double in 2009 – a feat she will try and repeat tomorrow night.

Earlier in the evening Seebohm only just missed her own Australian All-Comers record to win the second semi-final of the 50m backstroke in 26.37 – 0.04 outside the record she set in the morning heats.

National short course champion in the 200m backstroke Madison Wilson (26.71) and backstroke bronze medallist Hayley Baker (27.49) will both join Seebohm in the 50m backstroke final.

Seebohm will be chasing individual title number 12 to round out a successful five-day meet which will almost certainly see her named in Australia’s 20-strong Australian Team for the 2014 FINA World Short Course Championships in Doha next month.

The 22-year-old wrapped up her successful evening in the pool when she anchored the Nudgee Brothers team (Ellen Fullerton, Mikkayla Sheridan and Amy Forrester) to a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay over St Peters Western and Melbourne Vicentre – splitting 52.52.

“I have not been to a World Short Course before so I’m very excited, I was in Doha last year for a training camp and so I know the facilities well which is always an advantage,” said Seebohm. “I am treating events like these Australian Championships and the Doha Worlds as preparation for the (Rio) Olympics and the short course season helps with (improving your) turns. It’s something that can make that little bit of a difference and (if I’m going to) get that world record in the 100m long course, getting some good turns and working on that here is really good for that race as well.”

Meanwhile swimming’s man-of-the-moment, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mitch Larkin has continued his golden run with a stunning win in the 50m backstroke.

Larkin (St Peters Western, QLD) who smashed his own 100m backstroke Commonwealth record two nights ago used the turn his advantage and took the title in a personal best time of 23.33secs – 0.29secs outside Bobby Hurley’s Australian record.

Hurley finished second in 23.46 with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ben Treffers (Burley Griffin, NSW) third in 23.61.

Larkin, coached by Michael Bohl in his Brisbane-based Podium Performance Centre, will chase the backstroke treble in the morning when he lines up in the heats of the 200m backstroke – the event he finished eighth in at the London 2012 Olympics.

Gold Coaster Leiston Pickett (Southport) joined the likes of Leisel Jones and Sarah Katsoulis – as the only swimmers over the past decade to claim the 50-100m short course breaststroke double when she clocked a personal best time of 1:05.21 to win the 100m breaststroke final.

It followed her gold medal defense of her 50m breaststroke title on night two.

Pickett held on to beat the fast finishing defending champion and dual Olympian Sally Hunter (Marion, SA) 1:05.34 with Victorian teenager Jessica Hansen (Nunawading, VIC) third in a personal best time of 1:05.76 – moving her into the Australian All-Time Top 10.

The men’s 50m butterfly final came down to the touch with Commonwealth Games representative Jayden Hadler taking the win and the short course national title in 23.06. Commercial swimmers Tommaso D’Orsogna snuck into the silver medal position in 23.14, getting the better of bronze medallist Daniel Lester (23.14) by just 0.01 of a second.

The Multi-Class events were dominated by Cairns Grant Patterson and Katherine Downie (Westside Christ Church, WA) who both won their 50m freestyle titles with Patterson adding the 100m breaststroke which saw Tanya Huebner (Melbourne Vicentre) take the women’s title.

The silver and bronze medals in the men’s 50m freestyle Multi Class went to Mitchell Kilduff and Tim Antalfy respectively while Timothy Disken and Ahmed Kelly won silver and bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke Multi Class.
In the women’s Multi Class events Taylor Corry added to her ever-growing medal tally with a silver in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m breaststroke. Paralympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Maddison Elliott rounded out the medals with a bronze in the 50m freestyle multi class and Madeleine Scott took the silver in the 100m breaststroke.

In other events…

Men’s 100m Freestyle semi-final
The men’s 100m freestyle final features a hotly contested line up with the top eight men all posting a sub 48 second time. National short course champion in the 200m freestyle Cameron McEvoy will go through in top spot in 47.00 and could pick up the freestyle-double with a win tomorrow night. Commercial’s Tommaso D’Orsogna was second fastest with a 47.28 and 50m freestyle champion Matthew Abood was third in 47.62.

Women’s 50m Freestyle semi-final
After narrowly missing out on the women’s 100m freestyle crown earlier in the meet, Bronte Campbell will be searching for her first national short course title when she takes on Brittany Elmslie and Marieke D’Cruz in the women’s 50m freestyle. Campbell’s time of 23.96 was the only sub-24 second time in the field with Elmslie touching in 24.27 and D’Cruz in 24.45.

Women’s 100m Butterfly semi-final
Four time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Emma McKeon continued her run of success after posting the quickest time from the semi-finals of the women’s 100m butterfly tonight. McKeon’s time of 56.56 was too fast for second ranked Brittany Elmslie in 57.69 and Marieke D’Cruz in 57.96 for third.

Men’s 100m Individual medley semi-final
Just minutes after winning a bronze medal in the men’s 50m butterfly final Lawnton swimmer Daniel Lester clocked the fastest time from the men’s 100m individual medley semi-finals and will swim from lane four tomorrow night. Lester hit the wall in 53.69 to get the better of Melbourne Vicentre’s Jack Gerrard in 54.34 and Mackay swimmer Justin James in 54.40.

Men’s 50m Breaststroke semi-final
All ten men through to the men’s 50m breaststroke final have touched the wall within one second of each other. The title will be anyone’s for the taking with just 0.01 of a second between fastest qualifier Joshua Palmer (27.13) from Marion in South Australian and Indooroopilly’s Jake Packard (27.14). Polish swimmer Michal Zawadka will also progress, just 0.02 behind Palmer in third spot with a time of 27.16 with rising star Tommy Sucipto from West Australia also in with a chance at a medal in 27.42.

Results: Australian Short Course Championships

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

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