3 Under S9 World Record in 50 Fly to Close Australian Championships

2017 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS – PARA EVENTS

• Sunday, April 9th – Thursday, April 13th
• Brisbane Aquatic Centre
• Prelims at 11am local/Finals at 7:30pm local
• LCM
• Multi-Class racing
• Meet Site
• Entry List
• Qualification Criteria
• Meet Preview
• Live Streaming
• Live Results

Editor’s note: Australia’s para-swimmers are competing in multi-class events this weekend. That means that the swimmer who touches first, in the fastest time, is not necessarily the event champion. Instead, results are standardized relative to the athletes’ classes and assigned a point value. Swims with the highest point values win.

Abigail Lihou qualified for her first major international para-swimming team this week, and did so with thunderous noise on the final day of competition. The 19-year old from Ferry Hills won both of the women’s multi-class events on Thursday, and will join 19 other swimmers at the 2017 Para-swimming World Championships in Mexico City in late September.

Lihou’s, who competes in the S9 class, got her first win in the 100 brackstrokein 1:11.02. In that race, she beat fellow S9 Ellie Cole (1:11.54) for the title; Cole is the two-time defending Paralympic Champion and the World Record holder in the race.

Later in the session, in the 50 fly, Lihou swam a 30.42 to win again with a whopping 1124 point swim, and a new World Record. The old World (and Australian) record was a 31.64 set by Emily Beecroft last June at the IDM International. Beecroft also bettered her old World Record with a 31.14 second-place finish. The third-place finisher, Medeleine Scott, also was under the old record in 31.26.

In the men’s equivalent races, 16-year old Timothy Hodge swam a 1:04.62 in the final – which, points-wise, dominated the field by 99 on an 873-point swim.

The men’s 50 fly went to Mitchell Kilduff in 27.31, which scored as a 957-point swim. That is Kilduff’s first win of the meet, coming in the last multi-class day of the affair.