Jordan Harrison lead home a trio of youngsters who in the space of 14 odd minutes revived 1500m swimming in Australia. Harrison (14:43.26) beat home Matthew Levings (14:47.01) and Mack Horton (14:47.72) in what was arguably the race of the meet. For the first 1300m the three teenagers lit up the crowd with tactical nous and really hard swimming.
Their performance brought to mind the ebb and flow of Zeigler v Manaudou at the 2007 World Championships. The crowd were looking forward to a similarly close ending only to have Harrison (17) pull away with 200m to go. That left Levings (18) taking on Horton (16) for the silver and the second place on the Worlds team. Levings just out touched Horton. It is a stunning turn in the 1500m fortunes in Australia to have these three boys come onto the scene in a relatively short time, given that this was the only event without an Olympic A time.
Kenneth To left his best til last with a display of fast strong swimming in the 100 IM that resulted in an Australian record and the world’s best time of the year (0.02 faster than Phelps best in 2011) in a 51.64, He beat home Tommaso D’Orsogna and Sam Bienke in a great race. Watch the race below without this guy wrecking the experience for you.
Any one of the four fastest qualifiers could have taken out the mens 100 free tonight. Matthew Abood (47.33) ended up just holding out a very fast finishing Tommaso D’Orsogna (47.35) to take the prize. Likewise Kyle Richardson (47.61) just held out Cameron McEvoy (47.63) by the same margin for third.
The womens 200 breaststroke was won from the very minute Sally Foster (2:21.75) hit th water. At no stage did she look like being challenged in a dominant display. Her 4 second win was loved by the home crowd.
Brianna Throssell went in as top qualifier in the 100 fly but was made to work for what was a very exciting finish. Jemma Schlicht (58.66) took the race out fast in defiance of the older, faster girls only to be out touched by a fast finishing Throssell (58.46). The girls (15 and 16 years old respectively) beat home two other teenagers who tied for third in 58.81. Although they missed the QT for Worlds, they must be very happy that they are on the radar as potential replacements for the likes of Jessica Schipper.
In a race that looked like it could be close, it was really anything but. Marieke Guehrer (24.45) got out fast and stayed out in front in the 50 free. Olivia Halicek and Alexandra Purcell could only pick up the crumbs of what was left. Grant Irvine (1:55.32) chased down Chris Wright (1:55.37) to grab a spot on the team and the win in the mens 200 fly. Angie Bainbridge snuck under the QT for the 200 free in a time of 1:55.16.