At Queensland titles in Brisbane, where 2010 has arrived for some but most still spend 40mins wriggling into stuff that will be gone all too soon. Meagen Nay, racing in her first post-Rome meet since her brother died on the eve of the world championships back in July, clocked 1min 57.71sec in the 200m free but was, to be clear, in a Jaked01 and a 2:00.4 was best textile time by Ellen Fullerton (thank you to the reader who sent that info in: very happy that there are folk out there who would wish that to be clear, as it should have been made clear in all reports where possible for the past 22 months).
Leisel Jones was in a 2010-compliant suit and put in a 2:23.05 over 200m breaststroke that will surely rattle rivals on the way to the textile future.
The next generation of talent of that textile future is already out there: behind Jones came 16-year-old Tessa Wallace, kitted for 2010, and on 2:26.03. Christian Sprenger, who today lost one of his shiny suit world records to daniel Gyurta, took the men's crown in a solid 2:12.96 that augurs well for a man who will want to prove that textule is no barrier to further bounty in his career after some high times in the shiny suit of the season.
Meanwhile, Nicole Jeffery reports in The Australian that Ashley Callus, 30 and almost a decade beyond his Olympic relay gold at a home Games, will step up today in textile with an ambition of becoming the first Australian to crack 22sec without the aid of a suit. Best ever in those conditions Eamon Sullivan's 22.05sec.
All power to him as he heads into a season with the Commonwealth sprint crown in his sights. Part of the journey will include a rare return two lengths too this week: as Jeffery notes, Callus will race the 100m "after losing a bet with his promising 18-year-old training partner James Roberts".
Meantime, the shiny circus is not quite over yet: among meets to come this side of Santa dropping thousands of textile suits from the skies are the St Petersburg meet that features Paul Biedermann against Russia's finest on freestyle and Aschwin Wildeboer against Russia's finest on backstroke, and then the Duel in the Pool in Manchester, at which those swimming in the future - which is where you have to be to have a chance of winning - will follow Michael Phelps and race in 2010-compliant suits as the USA takes on an E-Stars European select of Brits, Germans and Italians.
