Leiston Pickett earns gold medal at the 2011 Australian Swimming Championship – Swimming News
Southport’s Leiston Pickett stunned the arena with her heart-winning swim of 30.24 seconds in the last session of the 2011 Telstra Australia Swimming Championship. The championship concluded in Sydney, after a total of 16 sessions in eight days.
Pickett has already participated at the international stages of World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships. She earned a silver medal in the 50m breast-stroke at the 2010 World Short Course Championships in Dubai and at the 2010
Pan Pacific Championships. The swimmer also secured a gold medal in the same event at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Her timing of 30.24 was comfortably under the former title holder, Leisel Jones, who clocked a gold medal in the same event last year, in a time of 30.87 seconds. Jones followed Pickett on the podium for a silver medal with a timing of 30.13 seconds, ahead
of Melbourne’s Natasha Waitzer, who earned the bronze medal in a time of 31.36 seconds.
With their beautiful timings, Jones and Pickett both qualified for the Australian team to compete at the World Championships, in July. Nunawading’s Sarah Katsoulis and GBR’s KA Haywood finished just after Waitzer, clocking a time of 31.45 and 31.78 seconds,
respectively.
In the Women’s 50m breast-stroke multi-class disability swim, Springwood’s Am Fowler dominated the event with a mind blowing swim of 39.07 seconds that qualified her for the Australian squad to Shanghai. She was followed by Woogaroo’s Ka Clarke, who touched
the wall in 39.85 seconds to earn the silver medal. There was a close combat for third position between Australian Crawl’s E Schmidt and Chandler’s N Holland, who remain involved in a neck-to-neck race. Schmidt managed to touch first in 42.17 seconds, against
Holland’s 42.90 seconds.
Miami’s Fraser Holmes also claimed a gold medal in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley event. He produced a wonderful swim during the eight-lap race with a timing of 4:16.75 minute to earn the title and an Australian team selection for Shanghai. He was followed
by Peters Wester’s Mitch Larkin, who earned the silver medal in a time of 4:17.52 minutes. Liverpool’s Daniel Tranter ended in a draw with Nunawading’s Travis Mahoney, with a timing of 4:21.22 minutes.
Olivia Halicek surprised the arena with her beautiful swim of 24.88 seconds, which provided her with a gold medal in the 50m freestyle event. She defeated defending champion, Yolane Kukla, who clocked 24.92 seconds to touch the wall for the silver medal,
while Melbourne’s Sophie Edington earned the bronze medal in a time of 25.05 seconds.
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