The Australian and Japanese World Championship swim teams have kick started their preparations for Kazan and Singapore in unique fashion at the Swimming Australia Grand Prix #1 at the Australian Institute of Sport Aquatic Centre in Canberra today.
Inspired by the presence of Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser and 1984 Olympic stars Mark Stockwell and Glenn Beringen the modern day Dolphins came together with the Japanese National team for the first time.
The open teams for Kazan and the junior teams for the World Junior Championships in Singapore combined in a Tri-Teams format led by Fraser, Stockwell and Beringen.
The opening session of four over the next two days, featured a series of “broken swims” similar to what the swimmers line up for in training.
Australia’s reigning world champion in the 100m freestyle Cate Campbell was thankful for some extra rest when a timing glitch gave the field in the 200m freestyle (50m, 100m, 50m) a welcomed mid-race break.
Campbell (Team Beringen) sped through the opening 50m in 25.07secs, with the 1 mins 30secs rest extended past three minutes which saw the world’s number one sprinter split her 100m in 54.98 (on 2:30) before finishing off the final 50m in 26.75 for an impressive combined time of 1:46.80.
“I couldn’t believe my luck getting that extra rest – I thought ‘yes’ how good is this,” said Campbell, who has just come off a 10-day altitude training camp in Thredbo with her Commercial training squad.
Campbell’s combined time of 1:46.80 proved too good for her gold medal-winning relay team mate from London, Brittany Elmslie (Team Stockwell) 1:47.90 and fellow Glasgow relay world record holder Emma McKeon (Team Fraser) 1:48.57.
London Olympic butterflyer Jayden Hadler (Team Beringen), also from the Simon Cusack coached Commercial team, welcomed the format saying racing the Japanese helped the Australians raise the bar.
“To get up and race the Japanese guys like Masato Sakai and Kosuke Hagino gives you the opportunity to work together to beat the best in the world,” said Hadler.
“The format is tough racing but it’s a lot of fun as well competing with and against the best Australians and the best Japanese.”
Hadler (1:46.43) finished second to fellow Australian David Morgan (Team Stockwell) 1:45.87 with Masato Sakai (Team Stockwell) 1:46.45 in a gruelling broken 200m butterfly (50m,100m, 50m).
In other men’s events:
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mitch Larkin (Stockwell) was too strong in the men’s 100m backstroke, with the race broken into two 50 metre efforts, Larkin’s cumulative time of 51.51 saw him finish on top. Team Beringen’s Ryosuke Irie was second in 51.64 with Larkin’s teammate Masakai Kaneko (Stockwell) rounding out the top three.
Team Fraser’s Kosuke Hagino demonstrated his dominance in the men’s broken 400m individual medley (100fly, 4x50back/breast, 100free) clocking the fastest time by over six seconds in 3:44.61. Team Stockwell’s Daiya Seto was second in 3:51.34 with Clyde Lewis (Fraser) taking out third spot in 3:58.31.
The men’s 100m freestyle (50+50) saw Cameron McEvoy pick up the points for team Fraser with an impressive time of 45.40 for the combined 50m efforts. Tommaso D’Orsogna (Stockwell) was the next best placed swimmer with a time of 46.22, getting the better of Japan’s Shinri Shioura (Fraser) who added to the Fraser point score with a time of 46.46.
There was little separating the men in the broken 400m freestyle (100, 200, 100) with Team Stockwell taking the top two spots thanks to Mack Horton and David McKeon. Horton was the quickest, finishing in 3:39.82 ahead of McKeon in 3:40.35 with Grant Hackett (Fraser) awarded third place points in 3:41.44.
Team Fraser continued their run of success with Yasuhiro Koseki taking the win in the men’s broken 200m breaststroke (50, 100, 50) in a time of 2:01.89. Team Stockwell swam into second place with a 2:03.26 from Ryo Tateishi with Grayson Bell (Fraser) collecting the points for third in 2:05.49.
In other women’s events:
Kanako Watanabe (Fraser) 1:03.66 won the 100m breaststroke (2x50m) from Lorna Tonks (Fraser) 1:03.91 and Taylor McKeown (Fraser) 1:04.38, before backing up to take the 200m butterfly (50, 100, 50) in 2:03.83 from Tessa Wallace (Beringen) 2:05.11 and Keryn McMaster (Fraser) 2:06.12.
London Olympian Jess Ashwood (Fraser) was very impressive in winning the broken 800m freestyle (100m; 3x200m; 100m) in 8:06.79 from Tamsin Cook (Stockwell) 8:19.30 and Chihiro Igarashi (Fraser) 8:20.20.
Commonwealth Games golden girl Emma McKeon (Fraser) was too strong in the 100m butterfly (2x50m) winning in a time of 55.07 from Japanese pair Natsumi Hoshi (Stockwell) and Rikako Ikee (Stockwell) while;
Dual Olympian Emily Seebohm (Beringen) 2:01.29 edged out rival Madison Wilson (Fraser) 2:01.57 and Sayaka Akase (Fraser) 2:04.33 in a hard fought broken 200m backstroke (2:04.33).
At the completion of the opening session Team Fraser leads the pointscore on 255 points from Team Stockwell (230) and Team Beringen (204).
Swimming News Courtesy: Swimming Australia
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