Brooke’s Look at Day Six Australian Swimming Championships

By Brooke Hanson (Olympic gold and silver medallist)

SYDNEY, Australia, Mach 21. THE final night of competition at the Australian Swimming Championships produced more world-class times at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

World champion Jessicah Schipper fought her way onto the Australian team, Ashley Callus qualified for his fourth Commonwealth Games and Stephanie Rice dominated the 400m individual medley.

Olympic silver medallist Brenton Rickard completed the breaststroke treble whilst Robert Hurley narrowly missed the fifteen-minute barrier in the 1500m freestyle.

Women's 200 butterfly
After battling a virus throughout the week that caused breathing problems, 2009 world champion Jessicah Schipper could do nothing but fight her way through the hardest four laps of her life.

The Olympic bronze medallist took the race out hard and showed she is a true champion, stopping the clock at 2.07.66 (28.52, 1.01.35,1.34.64).
Schipper's time is the fastest time in the world this year narrowly ahead of Great Britain's Ellen Gandy (2.07.77).

In one of her toughest ever races Schipper held off a fast finishing Samantha Hamill (2.07.75) who also swam faster than Gandy with dual Olympian Felicity Galvez (2.08.83) finishing third.

After the race, the recently engaged Schipper was relieved that she had qualified for the Australian team heading to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

"It hasn't been the ideal week for me but to finish off with that swim is fantastic. I knew it was going to be tough for me racing the girls as they are great competitors and I knew I had to win," she said

"I'm happy with my result and happy that I'm on the team, I'm lucky to have great support from my coach, squad and my family to help me through a tough week." an exhausted Schipper said after her win.

Men's 1500m freestyle
Race favourite Robert Hurley had a huge cheer squad in the stands holding up go Bobby signs and cheering him on over the thirty-lap event.

After a gruelling distance training camp, clocking up over 100m kilometres a week, the extra work paid off for Hurley tonight.

The 400 freestyle champion, on night one of the championships, looked relaxed and efficient winning the event in 15.00.96, becoming the sixth fastest Australian of all time.

Hurley recorded the world's fastest time this year beating defending champion Ryan Napoleon (15.14.96) and Christopher Ashwood (15.19.39).
With the retirement of captain Grant Hackett after the Beijing Olympic Games the Australian team is always looking for new talent to fill the shoes of the great champions that have excelled in the 1500m at an international level.

Robert Hurley looks destined to be the next Australian to break the 15-minute barrier and make the 1500 freestyle his own.

Like the five men ahead of him on the Australian All time list; Grant Hackett, Kieren Perkins, Craig Stevens, Daniel Kowalski and Glen Housman, Hurley now has a chance to improve his time before competing internationally later in the year.

"I was a bit disappointed at first to see 15 minutes as it would have been awesome to go under (15 minutes) but it's a six second personal best and I'm happy with that." Said a hungry Hurley who couldn't wait to have a feed after his gold medal winning performance.

Women's 400 individual medley
Olympic champion and world record holder Stephanie Rice dominated the 400 individual medley from the first stroke.

Rice, swimming from lane six, held nothing back winning the event for the third year in a row in an impressive time of 4.35.04 (1.01.64, 2.12.00, 3.31.83).

Rice finished five seconds ahead of Samantha Hamill (4.40.44) who backed up after claiming silver in the 200m butterfly with Blair Evans (4.40.49) only 0.05 behind finishing with the bronze medal.

Men's 50m freestyle
Seven years after winning his last 50m freestyle title, triple Olympian Ashley Callus (22.09) won the one lap dash qualifying for his fourth Commonwealth Games team.

Callus was pumped up after realizing he'd won the gold medal and had qualified for the team. In true Callus fashion he celebrated by flexing his biceps and punching his fist in the air.

Melbourne twenty five-year-old Cameron Prosser (22.36) swam the exact same time as his semi final to finish second ahead of 100m champion Eamon Sullivan (22.38) who was happy to make it through the week in one piece.

Men's 200 breaststroke
The 2008 Olympic silver medallist Brenton Rickard 2.09.31 (29.08, 1.01.67, 1.35.29) led from start to finish in the 200m breaststroke. Rickard's win gave him a clean sweep of the breaststroke events with Australian Institute of Sport's Craig Calder (2.12.33) in second place with World Record holder Christian Sprenger (2.12.71) finishing an unexpected third.
Australia's head coach Leigh Nugent was impressed with the performances over the six-day meet

"I've definitely got something to smile about, it's been a great week, we've had swimmers break into the team and more experienced swimmers hold their ground so I'm really happy," said Nugent

"When you get the balance of more experienced swimmers mentoring the young ones they develop much faster".

The Australian team will now focus on the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California in August.

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