CANBERRA, Australia, July 22. BRONTE Barratt and Eamon Sullivan broke Australian short course records and Leisel Jones gave a world record an almighty shake on the final morning of finals at the Telstra Grand Prix at the Australian Institute of Sport pool in Canberra today.<\/p>\n
Barratt crushed Elka Graham's five-year-old National mark of 4:01.17 in the 400 meter freestyle with a stunning swim of 4:00.66, while Sullivan bettered the 50m freestyle standard he set last night with a brilliant 21.46 in the two lap dash.<\/p>\n
While Barratt and Sullivan did break records, many of those in the packed crowd had come to see Jones and the five-time Olympic medalist almost delivered a world record in the 50 breaststroke, stopping the clock in 30.11, just 0.21 seconds shy of compatriot Jade Edmistone's time.<\/p>\n
Behind those three stars there were a multitude of other notable performances with the Australian all-time top 10 lists taking a hammering.<\/p>\n
Barratt though, was the standout, adding to her win in yesterday's 200 with her swim today.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old followed the instructions of her coach John Rodgers to the letter, getting out in 1:58.92 before coming home strongly to almost break the magical four-minute barrier.<\/p>\n
Afterwards Barratt said she was shocked with the time<\/p>\n
"I was told by my coach to go out in 1:58 and try and hold on from there and I did but I didn't think I could go that fast, that's for sure," Barratt said of her three-second personal best. I feel privileged to break the record of Elka because she is such a good person and I really look up to her."<\/p>\n
Barratt performed below her own expectations at the FINA World Championships in March but has bounced back with a series of good swims in Europe last month and again this weekend.<\/p>\n
Barratt's clubmate Kylie Palmer also showed good form, swimming a personal best of 4:06.56 for second.<\/p>\n
It took Sullivan less than 24 hours to take down his 50 freestyle mark and said there was more improvement in him after a less than characteristic sluggish start.<\/p>\n
"That was a bit slower than normal off the start, 0.12 of a second I think and I know there are other areas I can improve too," Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
Jones' time moved her into second on the Australian all-time list and was followed up by an easy victory in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:21.66<\/p>\n
The Monaco 50m events provided for fast swims across the board with many swimmers improving their all-time ranking.<\/p>\n
Danni Miatke clocked 26.16 in the butterfly to move to outright third, just holding off Felicity Galvez, whose 26.22 brought her to fifth all-time. Galvez also posted a world class 200m butterfly time of 2:07.08 in comfortably winning that event.<\/p>\n
World Championships relay gold medalist Emily Seebohm improved her backstroke personal best and ranking for the second time this weekend when she hit the wall in 27.58, a time only ever bettered by Tay Zimmer and Sophie Edington.<\/p>\n
Andrew Lauterstein took out the men's butterfly double, both times from Adam Pine. Lauterstein's 23.47 in the 50 and 52.35 in the 100 were both good for sixth on the Australian all-time list and continue his rise in the stroke.<\/p>\n
Ashley Delaney snared a double of his own, winning the 50 backstroke in 24.45 for fourth best all-time Australian and the 200 in 1:55.18 for eighth best.<\/p>\n
The other highlight of the morning was Kenrick Monk's 1:44.15 in the men's 200 freestyle.<\/p>\n
The strapping teenager who would not look out of place in the second row of a first grade rugby league team moved him up to fourth on the Australian all-time list behind only legends Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Michael Klim.<\/p>\n
The Sydneysider leaves for Indianapolis next weekend for a clash with Michael Phelps at the U.S. Nationals.<\/p>\n
Impressive behind Monk was Nick Ffrost who swam a personal best of 1:45.83 and Kirk Palmer, 1:46.13.<\/p>\n
In other events, Brenton Rickard claimed the 50 and 100 breaststroke double in fast times of 27.12 and 59.73 respectively; Alice Mills tuned up for next month's World University Games with victory in the 50 freestyle in 24.77 and Karina Leane won the 100 backstroke in 1:00.06.<\/p>\n
Leith Brodie won the men's 200m individual medley in 1:58.83, Jen Reilly the women's 400 IM in 4:40.29, Shayne Reese the women's 100 IM in 1:01.73, Sally Foster the 100 freestyle in 54.72 and Theodore Pasialis the men's 1500 freestyle in 15:18.95.<\/p>\n