HOBART, Australia, August 25. ACCORDING to Swimming Australia reports, the 2006 Telstra Australian Short Course Championships opened with a fast first night of finals as newly-minted world-record holder Jessicah Schipper recorded the third-fastest 200 SCM butterfly performance in history with a 2:04.42, while Grant Hackett returned to the pool with a conquest of the 200 SCM freestyle event in 1:44.05.<\/p>\n
Schipper coming off a world long course record in the 200 fly at the Pan Pacific Championships last week, missed a world-record double by just .38 seconds as Yu Yang\u2019s standard of 2:04.04 set on January 18, 2004 in Berlin, Germany held up to the assault.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say I am really happy with that swim,\u201d Schipper said. \u201cA 2:04, I didn\u2019t think I could go that fast after just returning back from Canada. I haven\u2019t really been setting any of my goals towards short course but it\u2019s definitely something that I am going to work on for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hackett, the Olympic 1500 meter champion turned on the jets in his event to capture the win over Commonwealth Games relay bronze medalist Kenrick Monk (2nd\/1:45.39) and Patrick Murphy (3rd\/1:46.74.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a little bit funny actually trying to sprint like that and I just wanted to go a 43 (one minute 43) and I went a 44,\u201d Hackett said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s slightly disappointing. It\u2019s my first 200 in a while so to get up and swim fast I should be happy. I think I will definitely swim the 1500, as a training run just to go out and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the 400-meter IM final, Queenslander Leith Brodie demolished the field to defend his title in an impressive 4:08.49. Victorian Nick Cordner (4:16.13) placed second with Shane Cross (4:17.74) of Warringah Aquatic rounding out the podium.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 400-meter IM came down to Melbourne teenager Talia Goddard taking her maiden Australian championship in a time of 4:41.13 after an epic dual with Albany Creek\u2019s Lorna Tonks (4:41.68).<\/p>\n
Training partners Christian Sprenger and Leisel Jones won their respective men\u2019s and women\u2019s 50-meter breaststroke finals, with Sprenger clocking 27.32 and Jones 30.20.<\/p>\n
Matt Welsh celebrated his 25th Australian Short Course title with a triumph in the 50-meter backstroke, in a time of 24.25, ahead of fellow Victorian Ashley Delaney (24.61) and Queensland\u2019s Leif Lyons (24.90). Welsh won his initial national championship in the event in 1997.<\/p>\n
In the final relay events of the evening, Yeronga Park won the men\u2019s 400-meter freestyle relay after a powerhouse third leg by Andrew Mewing set up the victory, his team just hanging on ahead of a fast finishing Kenrick Monk led SAC Seals, with Nunawading rounding out the medal winners.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 800-meter freestyle relay final came down to the Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton and Carey Aquatic, with the lead changing multiple times before a decisive anchor leg from Brisbane teenager Jolene Dendle sealed the win for Redcliffe in 8:03.18. Carey (8:06.42) claimed silver with fellow Melbourne club Haileybury Waterlions third in 8:06.42.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOBART, Australia, August 25. ACCORDING to Swimming Australia reports, the 2006 Telstra Australian Short Course Championships opened with a fast first night of finals as newly-minted world-record holder Jessicah Schipper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76598,"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-11916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n