Rebecca Soni produced the standout swim on the final day at the Austin Grand Prix, with a terrific 2:22.91 in the 200m breaststroke. Soni's time, which would have ranked 16th in the world last year, sets a grat early season standard for the start of textile 2010: its is 3.23sec quicker that the next best so far this year, Leisel Jones. The Australian will race next week at domestic trials for the Commonwealth Games, the first event of 2010 at which swimmers will, en masse, taper and provide a better view of where the form guide is going this year.

 In Austin, where the meet ran yards heats and metres finals, Soni's speed, off one training set a day, was a pool apart from  the 2:30.19 and 2:32.65 swims of Megan Jendrick, Olympic 100m champion as Quann back in 2000, and Justine Mueller (Monroe, Mich.), who finished third in 2:32.65.

  At this time of year, in time-honoured tradition that was somewhat thrown out of kilter in 2008-09, swimmers are at various stages of preparation and for most the test is against self and a chance to race. In the 100m free, Cesar Cielo, Olympic 50m champion, had another tight tussle with Garrett Weber-Gale and Matt Grevers, that ended 49.13 for Cielo, 49.31 for Weber-Gale and 49.45 for Grevers. Cielo was 0.01sec up of Weber-Gale at the turn. Cielo now leads the early 2010 rankings, Brent Hayden (CAN) having laid down the best early marker with a  49.53 last month. By the close of March 2009, 17 men had broken 49sec.

The women’s sprint free also produced a close field, with Jessica Hardy, first the turn, caught on the way home by Dana Vollmer and Natalie Coughlin. Vollmer got the touch in 54.30, with Coughlin, at her post-Beijing comeback meet, second in 54.71 and Hardy third in 54.74. Vollmer also won the 200m butterfly, in 2:13.86.

The current USA Swimming Grand Prix Series leader Chloe Sutton claimed the 800m free in 8:41.54 and the 1,500m went to Peter Vanderkaay in 15:18.75. The 200m backstroke finals went to Henriette Stenkvist and Nick Thoman. Stenkvist clocked in 2:12.64, just 0.09sec ahead of Canada’s Sinead Russell, with Madison White third in 2:13.44, for another tight finish. Thoman, on 1:59.58, had it easier in terms of the win, with Robert Margalis second in 2:02.35 and Canada’s Matt Hawes third in 2:02.51.

Mike Alexandrov backed up his 100m breaststroke win with a 200m victory in 2:14.79, while Portugal’s Pedro Oliveira claimed the 200m fly in 1:59.02.

The USA Swimming Grand Prix continues April 1-3 with the 2010 Columbus Grand Prix in Columbus, Ohio, which is the third stop of the eight-meet series. The winner of the Series will be awarded $20,000 at the final Grand Prix held in Los Angeles, July 8-11.