Morning session of the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championship: Day six - Swimming News
Morning session on day six of the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championship concluded with the preliminary rounds of five events in the Men’s and Women’s category. The championship is taking place in Sydney with the aim to scrutinise national swimmers
to represent Australia at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, in July.
The session included the heats of the Men’s 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly along with the Women’s 50m butterfly, 200m backstroke and 800m freestyle.
The session started with the Men’s 50m freestyle, where Melbourne’s Matt Targett qualified as the fastest swimmer into the semi-final in a time of 22.52 seconds and was only 0.01 seconds away from his following swimmer, Matthew Abood of Sydney, who ended
in a tie with Cameron Prosser touching the wall in 22.53 seconds.
Next was the 100m freestyle champion, James Magnussen, who demonstrated a wonderful swim for the third spot in 22.61 seconds while Australian great, Eamon Sullivan, touched the wall for the sixth spot, clocking 22.87 seconds. The event is considered as one
of the major events of the championship, as the top 11 qualifying swimmers have a time between 22.51 and 22.93 seconds.
Next was the Women’s 50m butterfly heats, where the arena witnessed Melbourne’s Mariek Guehrer ruling the event with her leading time of 26.71 seconds. She was followed by Southport’s Alice Mills and Firbank Aqua Star’s Louis Mitchell, who touched the wall
in a time of 27.06 and 27.29 seconds for their second and third fastest qualification, respectively.
In the Men’s 100m butterfly, Australian comeback king, Geoff Huegill, met the expectations of the arena by qualifying as the fastest swimmer into the semi-final with a timing of 52.94 seconds. The 32-year-old Huegill was followed by South Port’s Sam Ashby
and Sopac’s Andrew Lauterstein, who qualified as the second and third fastest swimmers in a time of 53.32 and 53.69 seconds, respectively.
Belinda Hocking conquered the heats of Women’s 200m backstroke by demonstrating an aggressive swim to produce a time of 2:10.71 minutes. Peter Wester’s Meagen Nay and Chandler’s Mikka Sheridan followed her into the semi-finals as the second and third fastest
swimmers by posting a time of 2:11.76 and 2:12.71 minutes, respectively.
The last event of the session was the preliminary rounds of the 800m freestyle, where Miami’s Katie Goldman dominated the event from the start. She earned the fastest qualification spot in a time of 8:34.60 minutes ahead of City of Perth’s Blair Evans and
Sopac’s Jessicah Ashwood, who touched the wall in 8:37.46 and 8:39.05 minutes, respectively.
The semi-finals of the same events will be carried out in the second session, where the top eight swimmers will only be a step away from confirming their spots to Shanghai in July.
Tags: