Aussie Juggernaut Continues to Roll at Youth Games

By Ian Hnson

EDINBURGH, Scotland. August 13. AUSTRALIAN swimmers today continued their dominance of the Commonwealth Millennium Youth Games in Edinburgh, winning all nine gold medals on offer on day two of competition at the Queen Elizabeth II pool.

To the strains of "Advance Australia Fair," Stephen Penfold (mens 1500m freestyle), Ray McDonald (men's 100 metres freestyle), Leigh McBean (men's 200m backstroke), Jodie Henry (women's 100m freestyle), Alissa Searston (women's 200m backstroke), Josh Krogh (men's 100m butterfly), Linda McKenzie (women's 100m butterfly) and both men's and women's 4×100 metres medley relay teams, celebrated "Australia Day" at the pool in fine style.

It followed the day one exploits of the junior Dolphins, who won seven of the 11 of the first-day gold medals and with the final day tomorrow, Australia's overall medal tally stands at 16 gold, two silver and two bronze medals from 20 events.

Penfold, the Australian Age champion over 1500 metres and fourth placegetter in the Australian Olympic Trials, continued to show his enormous potential to clock a personal best time of 15:27.40 (800m split 8:14.48) in the 1500m freestyle.

The 18-year-old from Miami on the Gold Coast won the event by a staggering lap-and-a-half,, with silver medallist, England's Nick Baker clocking 16:16.83 to be 40 seconds behind.

The Denis Cotterell trained swimmer, training partner of world champion and Sydney Olympian Grant Hackett, actually swam his final 100 metres under one minute.

Among Australia's other eye-catching performers was Brisbane schoolgirl Jodie Henry's gold medal effort to win the 100m freestyle in a personal best time of 56.67, taking her gold medal tally to three, with her performances in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay gold medals.

Henry was considered Australia's unluckiest swimmer at the Telstra 2000 Selection Trials in May, when she missed a spot on Australia's Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay squad for Sydney by just 0.02 seconds.

Her performances in Edinburgh have somewhat eased that pain for a youngster, who has her sites set on returning to Britain in 2002 for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

"The disappointments of missing the Olympic team has made her keener and hungrier to achieve her goals," said her coach Shannon Rollason.

"It has been a wonderful experience for Jodie and everyone on this Millennium Team to have a chance to contest their first major international competition."

Queensland's Josh Krogh has taken his individual medley tally to two gold and one bronze, after adding the 100m butterfly to his gold in the 400m individual medley and bronze in the 200m freestyle while East Maitland NSW's girl Alissa Searston has taken her individual tally to two gold and a bronze with victory in her specialist event the 200m backstroke.

On day day Searston won the 400 IM and followed up with a bronze medal in the 100 metres backstroke.

The second day's performances came after a day one effort which saw Brisbane's brilliant schoolgirl, Kelli Waite's world class 200m breaststroke time of 2:28.81 – the seventh fastest all-time by an Australian and a world senior ranking of 18.

Swimming competition concludes tomorrow with Josh Krogh and Nicole Hunter in the 200 metres butterfly events and Ashley Anderson in the 200m individual medley.

Australian Swimming Team's Medal Tally after two days and 20 events:
GOLD (16)
Kelli Waite (Yeronga Park, Qld) 200m breaststroke 2:28.81
Josh Krogh (Redcliffe Leagues, Qld) 400m individal medley 4:31.14
100m butterfly 54.91
Leigh McBean (Miami, Qld) 200m butterfly 2:04.05
Mark Riley (Commercial Qld) 200m breaststroke 2:19.75
Alissa Searston (East Maitland, NSW) 400m individual medley 4:52.77
200m backstroke 2:17.43
Stephen Penfold (Miami, Qld) 1500m freestyle 15:27.40
Katie Canning (Miami, Qld) 800m freestyle 8:49.27
Jodie Henry (Chandler, Qld) 100m freestyle 56.67
Linda McKenzie (Redcliffe Leagues, Qld) 100m butterfly 1:02.52
Ray McDonald (Brothers, Qld) 100m freestyle 52.10
Australia Mens 4x100m freestyle relay 3:27.89
Australia Womens 4x100m freestyle relay 3:51.36
Australia Mens 4x100m medley relay 3:47.81
Australia Womens 4x100m medley relay 4:15.41

SILVER (2)
Leigh McBean (Miami Qld) 100m backstroke 57.98
Kate Krywulyz (Aquadot Leisure Centre) 200m freestyle 2:02.89

BRONZE (2)
Josh Krogh (Redcliffe Leagues, Qld) 200m freestyle 1:55.27
Alissa Searston (East Maitland, NSW) 100m backstroke 1:05.34

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