Australian Long Course Championships: Fast Times Produced on First Night

SYDNEY, Australia, March 16. THE initial night of swimming at the Australian Long Course Championships produced some really strong times.

Blair Evans, Bronte Barrett, Kylie Palmer and Stephanie Rice led the fastest women's 200 freestyle final of the year thus far as three of the top four times were world-bests so far, while Rice tied the previous top effort in the world of Federica Pellegrini with a fourth-place 1:58.13. Evans (1:57.38), Barratt (1:57.46) and Palmer (1:57.69) all cleared 1:58, and beat the time (1:57.90) Meagen Nay used to win the race in 2009. Nay wound up taking sixth in 1:58.62, while Felicity Galvez earned fifth in 1:58.23.

Rice returned in the women's 200 IM with a sterling time of 2:10.07. The time cleared her winning effort of 2:11.00 from last year's championships, and finished just short of the drug-tainted world record of Wu Yanyan (2:09.72) that stood before the techsuit era. Rice's time trumped Ariana Kukors' 2:10.34 as the fastest in the world this year. Emily Seebohm finished second in 2:10.75, while Alicia Coutts picked up third in 2:11.97.

Nick D'Arcy just missed his Australian record in the men's 200 fly with a blazing time of 1:54.61. That performance came up short of his 1:54.46 national mark set last year at this meet, as well as the Commonwealth record of 1:54.15 set by Moss Burmester of New Zealand last year. D'Arcy far surpassed the previous world best this year of 1:56.71 clocked by Japan's Yuta Kimura in February. Chris Wright (1:56.23) and Jayden Hadler (1:57.07) rounded out the podium.

Robert Hurley snagged the men's 400 free title in 3:47.67, moving him into the top five in the world this year. Ryan Napoleon finished second in 3:48.70, while Patrick Murphy took third overall in 3:49.43.

Macquarie's quartet of James Magnussen, Nathan Roughley, Brandon Sibir and Calum Timms won the men's 400 free relay in 3:25.55.

In semifinal action, Hayden Stoeckel and Ben Treffers tied for the top seed in the men's 50 back with matching times of 25.18. The times put them at fourth-best in the world behind Matt Grevers (24.72), Liam Tancock (24.92) and Randall Bal (25.15). Marieke Guehrer paced the women's 50 fly with a 26.34, while Sweden's Therese Alshammar had the fastest preliminary time of 25.96. As an international swimmer, Alshammar could not advance past the preliminary round. Meanwhile, Leisel Jones put the Australian record in the women's 50 breast on notice with a semifinal time of 30.99. She'll be chasing Sarah Katsoulis' national mark of 30.16. Katsoulis checked in with a second-seeded time of 31.15 during semis.

In multi-class events, two world records fell in the men's 100 breast finale. Ahmed Kelly downed the SB3 M4 global standard with a 1:54.11, beating the previous record of 1:55.49. In the same event, Blake Cochrane clocked a 1:21.79 to break the S8 B7 record. Additionally, Annabelle Williams (29.60) and Jacqueline Freeney (31.82) were listed as tied for first in the women's 50 free. Peter Leek was listed first in the men's 50 free with a 26.72, while Tanya Huebner was listed first in the women's 100 breast with a 1:46.85.

ASCTA Podcast
Host Todd Balym has a one-on-one interview with Matt Brown, Coach of Emily Seebohm. Today's show also has audio from the Swimming Australia press conference on the announcement of the new Australian Head Coach. Todd also wraps up the morning heat session leading into the Day 1 finals.

Day 1 Podcast

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