Hat-trick of gold for Aussie’s in California

Swimming Victoria
Published: Jun 4, 2012 02:43:04 PM Updated: Jul 10, 2012 12:49:49 PM

Nunawading swimmer Ashley Delaney and Queenslanders Leisel Jones and Emily Seebohm have led the way for Australia on the final night of competition at the Santa Clara International in California winning gold, while Stephanie Rice and Nick D’Arcy showed that their Olympic preparation is well on track.

Swimming in her only individual event of the meet, Jones won the women’s 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:07.37, with former training partner Sarah Katsoulis taking bronze in 1:09.08.

The reigning Olympic champion in the event, the 26-year-old swam slightly quicker than her time at this year’s EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships to suggest things are progressing well for London.

“I was reasonably happy with the time, considering the windy conditions, but there’s always more you can do to prepare and that’s what I’ll be focussing on over the next six weeks or so,” said Jones.

Fellow Queenslander Emily Seebohm covered the 100m backstroke in an even minute (1:00.00) to win her first gold medal of the meet before then going on to swim 1:00.84 in the medley relay an hour later. Meagen Nay finished fourth in 1:01.52.

Backing up from her win in the 400m IM yesterday, Stephanie Rice had to contend with a inform Caitlin Leverenz (2:10.81) from the USA, taking silver in the women’s 200m IM. 

Leading over the butterfly and backstroke legs, Rice’s was overtaken during the breaststroke but still happy to post a solid time of 2:11.18, while Ellen Fullerton finished fifth in 2:15.40.

“I’m really happy with the swim and the time, it’s a couple of seconds better than what I did in Vancouver last weekend and only a couple of seconds off what I swam at Trials so it’s a good sign.”

“I just wanted to get in and race hard and obviously it would be nice to come away with the win but I’m not entirely disappointed with the second.”

Racing the number one 200m butterfly swimmer in the world this year Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda (1:54.57), Queenslander Nick D’Arcy put in a strong performance in his pet event to win silver in a time of 1:56.43.

With fond memories of this event where he defeated Michael Phelps by 0.01 of a second last year, the 24-year-old medical student said the swim will give him plenty of confidence ahead of London.

“It’s hard to know what to expect at this level and stage of the preparation, but this is about where I was at two weeks out form the Trials, and we’ve still got about eight weeks to go which is good,” said D’Arcy.

“It was a little bit disappointing not having Phelps here but Matsuda is the number one in the world at the moment. He’s a fantastic athlete and having the opportunity to come up against him is pretty incredible.”

Delaney took gold in the men’s 100m backstroke in 54.89 to win Australia’s only other individual gold on the night with Hayden Stoeckel picking up silver in 55.51, while Kylie Palmer was sixth in the 800m freestyle in 8:41.53.

 

For full results go to www.usaswimming.org