By Ian Hanson Chief Australian Correspondent<\/i><\/p>\n
ADELAIDE,South Australia, July 2. COMMONWEALTH Games gold medallists Yolane Kukla (St Peters Western, Qld) and Geoff Huegill (SOPAC, NSW) will hold centre stage tonight when night two of finals get under way at the Australian Short Course Championships at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
For 15-year-old Kukla she will have another two chances to hone her race skills in two finals \u2013 the 100m butterfly and 50 metres freestyle.<\/p>\n
She will get an early opportunity to add gold medal number two in the 100 metres butterfly after her last gasp win over reigning world champion Marieke Guehrer (Melbourne Vicentre, Vic) in last night's 50m final.<\/p>\n
One of the real stars of the Australian team, Kukla is the fastest qualifier in a field that includes Olympians Alice Mills (Southport Qld), Jessicah Schipper (Chandler, Qld) and Guehrer but not Olympic champion in this event, Libby Trickett (Unattached, Qld), who finished 13th and missed the final.<\/p>\n
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist in this event will then join Guehrer and Mills in the 50 metres freestyle final as they chase the re-juvenated NSW UniSwim flyer Olivia Halicek, the surprise Australian Open winner and tonight's fastest qualifier in 24.51.<\/p>\n
It was another tough race for Trickett who faded to finish 11th in 25.41 and will be forced to look on from the grandstand as the next generation show their wares.<\/p>\n
While Trickett is taking the ups and downs of her comeback in her stride, the former gymnast Kukla is on track for her maiden voyage to a FINA World Championship in Shanghai, an ideal stepping stone on her journey towards next year's Olympics.<\/p>\n
For the recently married Huegill, who wed fianc\u00e9 Sara Hills in Bali in April, the ride to a possible third Olympics at age 33 is very much on track.<\/p>\n
Huegill will line up in his pet 50 metre butterfly final tonight surrounded by "the young" in 18-year-old fellow Shanghai team mate Kenneth To (Trinity Grammar, NSW) and "the old" in 35-year-old former World Short Course Champion Adam Pine (Ginninderra, ACT).<\/p>\n
The outcome, as Huegill chases a successful defence of his title, will be another intriguing chapter in "Skippy's" amazing comeback.<\/p>\n
But he will have to be on his game to match "the restless" in fastest qualifier Mitchell Patterson (Cranbrook, NSW), a noted short course speedster.<\/p>\n
In other highlights tonight:<\/p>\n
\u2022\tLast night's 100m freestyler winner James Magnussen (SOPAC) has thrown his hat into the 200m freestyle ring, clocking the fastest time in today's heats of 1:45.29 from 400m winner Robert Hurley (Wests Illawarra., NSW) 1:45.93, Kyle Richardson (Chandler) 1:46.13 and World Championship relay swimmer Jarrod Killey (Hunter, NSW) 1:46.34.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tKenneth To (1:57.36) heads the qualifiers for the 200IM, ahead of Olympian Leith Brodie (St Peters Western) 2:00.34 and Stephen Parkes (Sydney Uni, NSW) 2:00.68 who is back after a lay-off with a new lease of life.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tFresh faces Samantha Wilkins (Haileybury, Vic) 1:00.95, Kotuku Ngawati (Melbourne Vicentre, Vic) 1:01.46 and Aisling Scott (Brothers, Qld) 1:01.84 are the top three going into the 100IM final.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tDaniel Blackborrow (Melbourne Vicentre) will be looking to turn back the clock in the 200m, backstroke, grabbing lane four in 1:57.28 at age 27.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tRachel Goh (Melbourne Vicentre) 58.64 will have to be on her game to hold off former Australian champion Tay Zimmer (Nunawading, Vic) 59.04 and Grace Loh (Melbourne Vicentre) 59.06 in the women's 100m backstroke.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tDuelling breaststrokers Brenton Rickard (Southport, Qld) 1:00.49 and Christian Sprenger (Indooroopilly, Qld) 1:00.69 will resume hostilities after Sprenger out-touched Rickard in last night's 50m final.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tEmerging Pat Wright coached breaststroker Rebecca Kemp (Mackay, Qld) will continue to seize her opportunity in a women's 200m breaststroke field, minus Leisel Jones, who has dropped the longer distance from her repertoire. Kemp, who will make her World Championship debut in Shanghai, is the fastest qualifier in 2:25.47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ian Hanson Chief Australian Correspondent ADELAIDE,South Australia, July 2. COMMONWEALTH Games gold medallists Yolane Kukla (St Peters Western, Qld) and Geoff Huegill (SOPAC, NSW) will hold centre stage tonight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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-27417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n