By Stephen J. Thomas<\/p>\n
PERTH, Australia, January 10. RISING Aussie sprint star Eamon Sullivan reinforced his claim as a serious contender for selection to the Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Games teams in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and even an outside chance in the 50 fly with a strong showing at the West Australian Open Championships held January 3-6. <\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Athens Olympian set three new West Australian Resident records in the three events, highlighted by a PR 49.60 in taking the 100 freestyle title. It was his second time under the 50-second mark in just a couple of weeks, having already taken the NSW Open title in 49.74 ahead of former world record-holder Michael Klim before Christmas. <\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Klim clocked 49.67 in a semi-final at the Victorian Open on the weekend so the young Perth-born speedster has his head in front at the moment with only three weeks until the National Champs where the important business will take place. One other name worth a mention that has also qualified in a club meet for the two-lap sprint is the \u201clightly raced\u201d Ian Thorpe. Thorpe\u2019s last public race over the distance was his Olympic bronze medal winning 48.56 in Athens.<\/p>\n
Sullivans\u2019 other two wins were in the 50 free, winning in 22.66 after "missing" the start and a PR 24.35 in the 50 fly. <\/p>\n
His Athens teammate Lara Carroll performed very well in a heavy program highlighted by a new WA Residential record of 2:14.89 in the 200 individual medley, an event in which she took bronze at the World Champs last year. The 19-year-old Carroll also took the breaststroke treble, 200 fly, 50 and 200 backstroke events. <\/p>\n
National record-holder Jennifer Reilly looked to be making a successful comeback to competition with a win in the 400 IM (4:47.84) while Travis Nederpelt (4:26.29) got on top of arch-rival Adam Lucas in the final leg to take the men\u2019s event. Nederpelt also beat Lucas in the 400 freestyle while Lucas (1:52.16) edged out Nederpelt in the four-lap race.<\/p>\n
Nederpelt finished his challenging Commonwealth Games Trials preparations, winning the 1,500 freestyle in 15.40.53 while Lucas, the reigning national champ in the medley events, also took the 100-200 backstroke double (57.45\/2:02.66) and the 200 IM in 2:04.88. Lucas\u2019 kid sister Amy took the women\u2019s 100 back (1:04.53) and silver medals in the 50-200 back and 100 free. <\/p>\n
Aussie record-holder Jim Piper won gold in his signature 200 breaststroke (2.17.92) after missing the shorter races due to illness. Mark Riley cleaned up in the 50-100 breast clocking 28.95 and 1:04.47, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen J. Thomas PERTH, Australia, January 10. RISING Aussie sprint star Eamon Sullivan reinforced his claim as a serious contender for selection to the Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n