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East Asian Games - Day 5

May 25, 2001  - Ian Hanson

OSAKA - Canberra based freestyle sprinter Stephen Goudie, Brisbane butterflyer Greg Shaw and the women's 4x100m medley relay team all added second placings to Australia's impressive results list on night five of the 3rd East Asian Games swimming events in Osaka.

The Aussies have now chalked up five wins, 10 seconds and three third placings with one night of finals tomorrow.

Even though the Dolphins are among an Australian delegation who are ineligible to collect medals here,on an unofficial points basis the Australian team is only one point behind China in the "unofficial pointscore".

Host nation Japan lead on 275 from China 255 and Australia 254, with both Japan and China fielding their World Championship teams against the emerging Dolphins outfit.

Goudie dead-headed for second with Japan's Tomohiro Yamanoi in the men's 50m freestyle in 23.05, behind Korea's second winner of the meet, Kim Min-Suk (22.82).

It was Goudie's third placing of the meet, after finishing second to team mate Rob Van Der Zant in the 100m freestyle and leading off Australia's winning 4x100m freestyle relay team.

Shaw finished strongly over the final 100 metres to grab second behind Japanese Olympian Takashi Yamamoto in the men's 200m butterfly, which also saw Australia's Shane Fielding finish fourth.

The 23-year-old Shaw clocked a time of 1:59.99, behind Yamamoto's 1:57.45., with Fielding clocking 2:00.81.

Australia's 4x100m medley relay team were elevated to second after host nation Japan were disqualified for an illegal change over.

The team of Sophie Edington-backstroke (1:04.13); Sarah Katsoulis-breaststroke (1:11.56); Lara Davenport-butterfly (1:00.88); Melinda Geraghty-freestyle (56.86) clocked a time of 4:13.43.

Earlier in the evening 15-year-old Sydney schoolgirl, Jessica Abbott confirmed her promise as a swimmer to watch out for over the next three years, when she clocked a personal best time of 2:19.50 to finish fourth in the 200m individual medley, which also saw Rebekah Rychvalsky finish eighth in 2:30.90.

Other Australians in action tonight were: Tammie Smith, fourth and Kate Krywulycz, sixth in the women's 800m freestyle in 8:51.11 and 8:57.07 respectively and Beau Mannix (56.77) and Leigh McBean (57.70) fourth and sixth respectively in the men's 100m backstroke.

Australia's best chance for placings tomorrow night look to be in the mens 4x100m medley relay with Beau Mannix, Jim Piper, Burl Reid and Rob Van Der Zant going head-to-head against Japan and the men's 1500m freestyle with Stephen Penfold and Andrew Affleck.