Preliminary rounds of the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championship: Day five
The fifth day of the 2011 Australian Swimming Championship involved the preliminary rounds of four events for the Men’s and Women’s category. The championship will complete on April 8, with the completion of the Australian Swimming team to compete at the
2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July.
The championship has already witnessed the dazzling swims of Australian stars battling each other to defend their national titles and to confirm their spots under the tough time qualification criteria, set by Australian head coach, Leigh Nugent.
The session featured the preliminary rounds of the Men’s 200m backstroke and the 200m breast-stroke along with the Women’s 100m freestyle and the 200m breast-stroke.
The session started with the Women’s 100m freestyle, where 23-year-old Redland’s Alicia Coutts qualified as the fastest swimmer into the semi-finals. Coutts, who has already confirmed her spot to the Shanghai Championships, is now looking for the third seat
to China after her victory in the 100m event. Coutts was followed by Hailey Bury’s Kelly Stubbins and Peters Wester’s Yolane Kukla into the semi-final with a wonderful qualification time of 55.03 and 55.08 seconds, respectively. The event is expected to provide
a great show in the arena, as all the semi-final qualifying swimmers have a time of less than 56.00 seconds.
Next were the preliminary rounds of the Men’s 200m backstroke that encountered the ferocious swims of the top three qualifying swimmers. Nunawading’s Ashley Delaney appeared as the fastest qualifying swimmer in an astounding time of 2:02.06 minutes. Delaney
faced tough competition from Peters Wester’s Mitch Larkin and Tiger Sharks’s Matson Lawson throughout the race, but managed to out-touch them in the last 10 metres of the race. Larkin qualified as the second fastest swimmer into the semi-final clocking a time
of 2:02.54 minutes, to finish ahead of Lawson, who touched the wall in a time of 2:02.99 minutes.
In the Women’s 200m breast-stroke, Central Aquatic’s Sally Foster ruled the event from the very start. Her unmatchable long stroke and quicker turns provided her with a lead from fellow swimmers. Foster qualified for the semi-final in a fastest time of 2:29.74
minutes ahead of Nunawading’s Sarah Katsoulis and Mackay Rebecca Kemp, who touched the wall in 2:31.32 and 2:32.86 minutes, respectively.
The last event of the session was the Men’s 200m breast-stroke. The event was dominated by Albury’s Craig Calder, who conquered the heat with a comfortable distance of three seconds from his competitor, Southport’s Brenton Rickard, who finishes in 2:18.17
minutes. River City’s Nichol Schafer secured the third fastest qualification spot in a time of 2:18.41 minutes, which was only a second away from his following swimmer.
The semi-finals of the same events will take place in the second session, where the contestants will be one-step closer to confirm their spots for Shanghai.
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