By John Lohn
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 30. ALTHOUGH many of the names will change for the evening session, the United States and Australia qualified as the top teams in the preliminary heats of the 400 medley relay. The American squad was timed in 4:01.10 while the Australians registered a performance of 4:02.01.
The U.S. received a 1:00.84 lead off from Leila Vaziri on the backstroke leg and then rode the efforts of Jessica Hardy, Dana Vollmer and Amanda Weir to the wall. Tonight, the USA will get stronger when Natalie Coughlin is placed on the backstroke leg. It's also likely that Tara Kirk and Rachel Komisarz will be put on the breast and fly legs, with Kara Lynn Joyce or Lacey Nymeyer on freestyle.
The Australians went to the squad of Emily Seebohm, Tarnee White, Felicity Galvez and Jodie Henry and will also significantly enhance the roster during the evening session. The Aussies have Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Lenton waiting to strike. The third-fastest qualifier was Japan in 4:04.01 and China was fifth in 4:04.39.
Filling out the field for the final are Germany (4:04.62), Sweden (4:05.39), Russia (4:05.45) and Great Britain (4:05.85).
Click Here to view event results PDF file.
