News Round-Up:

Sweden: Sarah Sjostrom, the Swedish 'fly and freestyle ace, will use the Swedish Championships in Helsingborg to decide whether to compete at the World winter showcase in Istanbul next month. "If she is sufficiently competitive, she will swim at the World Championships," her coach Carl Jenner told Swedish media. At a club competition in Paris this past weekend, Sjostrom clocked 1.55.9 in a 200 freestyle relay, a 2.14 over 200 IM and a 58.6 split on butterfly in the medley relay. "The times are were where they should be right now. Sarah has been training well," said Jenner. A Swedish report that suggested Sjostrom would compete at the European Short-Course Championships at Chartres from November 22-25 was incorrect.

USA: Ryan Lochte and Missy Franklin ended the Minneapolis Grand Prix as stars of the show with two more victories each, Lochte in the 200y medley and 200y back, Franklin in the 200y back and 100y free. Lochte took the medley in n 1:45.62, almost four seconds ahead of next home. Within 16 minutes of his first win, Lochte clocked 1:41.13 in the 200y back, almost three seconds ahead of next best. Franklin excelled in the 200y backstroke, on 1:50.10, the rest 6-plus second adrift, and then returned for a dominant 48.31 win in the 100y free. Other winners were Chloe Sutton, on 15:49.41, in the 1650y free, with Becca Mann second in 15:54.46 and breaking the National Age Group Record for 13-14 girls, her effort taking her inside the 15:54.86 set in 1981 by Olympic champion to be Tiffany Cohen; Dagny Knutson, on 1:59.41 in the 200y medley; Garrett Weber-Gale, on 43.59 in the 100y free; and Denmark’s Mads Glaesner, in 14:48.53 over 1650y free. 

Australia: the Queensland Government and Gold Coast City Council has voted to speed up the upgrade of the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre in time to host the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in August that year.