|
Three world records at Aus trials
23/03/2008 15:13 - (SA)
Sydney - Sophie Edington set the third world record at the Australian Olympic swimming trials, shattering the day-old record in the non-Olympic 50m backstroke event here on Sunday.
Edington claimed a new world record with a time of 27.67 seconds, slicing 0.28sec off the record of 27.95sec set just the previous day by schoolgirl Emily Seebohm in the semi-finals of the event.
Edington finished second behind Seebohm in the semi-finals, but Seebohm did not contest Sunday's final.
Stephanie Rice triggered the run of world records at the trials with a new best in the 400m individual medley on Saturday.
Libby Trickett, formerly Lenton, clinched a spot on the Australian team for Beijing with victory over Jessicah Schipper in the 100m butterfly final.
Trickett became the second woman to go under 57 seconds in the event with her time of 56.81secs to continue her new dominance over Schipper (57.31) in Schipper's biggest beating in the event since the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Trickett, the reigning world title holder, moved within striking distance of Dutchwoman Inge De Bruijn's world record of 56.61secs.
Schipper had been a major stumbling block for Trickett until she conquered the 2005 world champion at last year's Melbourne world championships.
Lowered the mark
Trickett said that with her ticket to Beijing secure, she was ready to launch an assault on the 100m freestyle world record at the trials later in the week.
"Hopefully it bodes well, sometimes you never really can tell," she said.
"The first one at an Olympic trials is always a bit harder because you have not made the team but now that I am there and I am on it, it is like a weight lifted off my shoulders.
"It is a relief and now I can really go about swimming my heart out."
Trickett has twice owned the 100m freestyle world record before German Britta Steffen lowered the mark to 53.30sec in 2006.
Seebohm, a 15-year old backstroker, set a Commonwealth record (59.78s) in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke.
Seebohm, who broke the 50m backstroke world record before Edington trumped it Sunday, became the first Australian woman to crack the one minute barrier in the 100m and inched towards American Natalie Coughlin's (59.21s) world mark.
Brenton Rickard (1:00.04) shoved aside the heartbreak of missing out on the 2004 Olympics team by reclaiming his national record in the 100m breaststroke.
He and Christian Sprenger (1:00.22) both secured passage to Beijing.
Linda MacKenzie (4:04.73) smashed the 400m freestyle national record by more than a second in downing Bronte Barratt (4:05.19).
- AFP
|
