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Rickard Races Into Sub-2:10 Textile Team
Mar 21, 2010 - Craig Lord
On the last day of Aussie trials for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Brenton Rickard became the first man in 2010 and 7th all-time in a textile suit to crack the 2mins 10sec mark - 2:09.31 - over 200m to claim a clean sweep of breaststroke titles. In the last event of the championships, Melissa Gorman, 5km world champion in 2009, set the only national record of the six-day meet, in 16:03.24, inside the 1993 standard that had stood to Hayley Lewis at 16:04.84 and 13th best all-time.
In other finals, Ashley Callus, 31, dominated the sprint club in the 50m free with a 22.09 win and will head to his 4th Commonwealth Games after a debut in Kuala Lumpur, 1998; Jess Schipper hung on to her 200m 'fly crown by a fingernail; and Stephanie Rice retained 400m medley crown in 4:35.04. Robert Hurley just missed the 15min barrier to win the 1,500m free crown, his splits indicating that a strong sub-15min effort is within his grasp.
The 2010 nationals have surely left Australian swimming with hope in its heart. The transition to textile for a country that only ventured beyond the 50% poly LZR for the Rome circus in 2009 (and even then not all were tempted) has not been as difficult as some had predicted. Racing was sharp, tight and fast, with a healthy sprinkling of blanket podium finishes making for a solid showcase of swimming as the sport settles into a world rid of apparel that skewed the result sheet and severed the thread of aquatic history.
With the likes of Adam Pine, 34, Geoff Huegill, 31, and Ashley Callus, 31, making the grade for the team bound for Delhi in October, there is talk of a more mature and older sport. However, one of the key features of the trials in Sydney has been the advance of a large number of teenage talents. Among all top three places, 50% were claimed by teenagers among women and a third claimed by teenagers among men.
A glance back at the 1994 games in Victoria reveals this: at a Games where Australia's oldest man was Martin Roberts, 28, and oldest woman was Karen Van Wirdum, 23 (and the baby of the squad was Brooke Hanson, 16), the average age of men was 21 and the average age of women 19.5. Fast forward to Delhi 2010 trials and the spread may be bigger - Yolane Kukla at 14 and Adma Pine at 34 - but the averages are not much different: 20.5 years old among women and 21.5 among men.
After trials, new head coach to the Dolphins, Leigh Nugent, played down expectations of Australian success in Delhi when he told reporters Down Under that British swimmers, divided into home nations, could inflict serious damage.
At the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, Australia won 17 of 38 event, and 16 of those among women.
"It's the best thing that can happen to us, to go to the Commonwealth Games under threat where we really have to stand up," Nugent told the media. "We need to be very vigilant in how we go about our preparation for this competition because complacency has brought down empires hasn't it. It can bring down a swimming team quicker than that. The tougher it can be there (Delhi), the better it is for our athletes' development. The way they fought out their races here you can see that real Australian character coming through and I think that is what we'll build our team around - that tough, hard, never give up attitude."
Australian Nationals and Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney - Day 6.
Men 50m freestyle
There were no sub 22sec efforts but a 22.09 win from Ashley Callus 10 years after he raced alongside Michael Klim, Chris Fydler and Ian Thorpe in that historic 4x100m free victory at a home Olympic Games in Sydney, told a tale of longevity in a sprint club that learned long ago from the likes of Alex Popov, a double world champion in 2003 11 years after the first of his double Olympic triumphs that age is no limit to success. Callus is 31. He kept at bay Cameron Prosser, 25, on 22.36 and former world record holder Eamon Sullivan, 24, on 22.38. Those efforts locked out Matthew Abood, on 22.53, Kyle Richardson, on 22.54, and Matt Targett, on 22.66.
The times on the clock are a world away from the plastic-fantastic of 2009. No surprise there. But beyond the excellence of Callus, coached by Graeme McDonald at North End Aquatic and 0.9sec away from his 2009 Commonwealth record (in a suit that buoyed his performance to a hugely significant degree), the race was just as tight as any in recent years. The adjustment seen on the clock Down Under today is likely to be reflected through the ranks across the world. In December 2006, at trials for Melbourne 2007, Sullivan was champion in 22.00, a record. Callus was second on 22.25, and Prosser third on 22.81, Targett fourth in 22.83.
Callus told AAP: "Never too old, like a fine wine I like to say but it is good to go that time under the pressure of tonight's race. I had time off after Beijing (Olympics) and the fire was still in the belly and as I lost a bit of time with illness and injury and I still have something to prove to myself. It has been seven years since I last won this national title so after missing last year this is nice and sweet."
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
This was the slowest 50m final in Australia since 2006.
Women 200m butterfly
It was a cliff-hanger but world champion Jessica Schipper, 23, managed to keep Samantha Hamill, 19, at bay by just 0.09 to retain the 200m crown in 2:07.66, with Felicity Galvez third in 2:08.83. It was the slowest final on the clock since 2006, when Schipper won the crown in 2:06.02, ahead of Galvez, on 2:08.93, with then 15-year-old Hamill in 5th on 2:13.18.
In 2010, less than 0.4sec split the first three at the 100m mark, Schipper having the edge on rivals from blocks to time pad and turning in 1:01.35 at the 100m mark. At the last turn, 0.34sec split the podium placers, and while Hamill had the best split on the way home, of 32.91, Schipper, Commonwealth record holder on 2:03.41 (then a world record) in 2009, had done enough.
Schipper, coached by Stephan Widmar at Commercial, raced despite illness. "Probably at 135m (mark) my breath started to shorten and I could feel it happening," Schipper told reporters in Sydney. "I kept telling myself to relax and take deep breaths, and just telling myself this was the last one (race), and it didn't matter if I died (in the race) someone would save me at the end."
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
The slowest podium since 2006, though the race was as close and exciting as it ever has been.
Men 200m breaststroke
Brenton Rickard, coached by Glenn Baker at Southport Olympic, became the seventh man in textile ever to break 2mins 10 in a textile suit, his dominant 2:09.31 win, off a 1:01.67 split, delivering a clean sweep of breaststroke titles at these trials. Rickard was in a race of his own: on 29.08 at 50m he was already 0.63sec up on world record holder in 2009 (2:07.31 in the 100% poly), Christian Sprenger, third by the end on 2:12.71. Craig Calder overhauled the world championship bronze medallist on the way home for second place in 2:12.33.
Rickard, with a 20099 best of 2:07.89, has reason to be delighted with the time on the clock: 0.2sec up on his 2008 LZR performance at Olympic trials in 2008, early world rankings leader and surely a most competitive time for the season ahead. The 2009 trials for Rome saw three men on 2:12 before the Australian team was allowed to be competitive in the shiny suits of the summer circus and the clock was something to be regarded in the context of a season of performance enhancement that has since been forbidden. For Calder, the race marked a merry moment beyond selection for the Delhi Games, his previous best a 2:12.43 from the Mare Nostrum tour last summer.
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
Many of the 30 men who cracked 2:10 in 2009 will struggled to do so in 2010 after a return to textile suits
Women 400m medley
Double Olympic medley champion Stephanie Rice, coached by Michael Bohl at St Peters Western, laid down a 2010 marker with a strong 4:35.04 win in the 400m medley that confirmed that she is well on the road to fitter times once more. On 4:29.45 in 2008 (still the world record) in a poly LZR, Rice slipped to a 4:36.71 win at trials for Rome last year and was at pains to note that she simply had not put the same level of work in as she had in the build up for Beijing. Her times at Rome 2009, she noted, had reflected the 100% poly suits she wore, and not her level of fitness. A 4:35 at the end of a busy week in post-poly times represented a fine effort that kept teenagers Samantha Hamill and Blair Evans at bay by 5secs.
Hamill, who had not long dried out from a silver a fingernail behind Jess Schipper in the 200m 'fly, took a second silver, in 4:40.44, with Evans just 0.05sec away. Rice dominated the race, however, turning in 1:01.64, 2:12.00; 3:31.83 before bringing the race home in 1:03.21 on freestyle, a last lap split of 30.32 suggesting that she had a little left in the tank as she regained the title.
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
On the clock, a similar pattern to that seen in many races at these trials in a nation that relied overwhelmingly on the LZR and not 100% poly suits until Rome 2009.
Men 1,500m freestyle
Australia has work to do to get back to the glory days of Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett in the 1,500m free: no man was able to crack 15mins at trials today but at least one will do so soon, it seems. The new champion is Robert Hurley, 21, coached by Ron McKeon at Wests Illawarra, and on on 15:00.96. That was inside a best of 15:07.08.
The defending champion, Ryan Napoleon, 19, took second in 15:14.96, with third place going to Christopher Ashwood, 18, in 15:19.39. Hurley was shadowed until the 600m mark, when he edged steadily ahead to build up a 5sec lead over Napoleon by the 1,000m mark as his momentum for 29sec plus splits grew. Had Hurley started out as he finished, he would surely have shattered the 15min mark: from the 800m onwards he swam inside 30sec on all but two 50m laps, before bringing the race home in 28.81.
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
Perkins and Hackett, Stevens, Housman and Kowalski are gone from the race pool but the targets they set remain for the current generation of Australians
Women 1,500m Freestyle
In one of the highest quality performances of the trials, Melissa Gorman, open water 5km world champion, stormed to a 16:03.24 victory in the 30-lap final. That marked the only national record to fall at the six-day meet. The 24-year-old coached by Ken Wood at Redcliffe League, split the 800m in 8:33.88, faster than the 8:33.97 in which she placed 4th in the solo 800m on Friday. By then, the crown was surely hers, the gap to Kylie Palmer 15sec wide. By the end, Palmer, second over 400m and and 3rd over 800m at these trials, took silver in 16:41.71, with 17-year-old Danielle Da Francesco on 16:46.58. The Australian record had stood to Hayley Lewis at 16:04.84 since 1993. Gorman's best had been 16:09.66 from last year.
The Times Transition (Aussie trials, 2008, 09, 10 and Rome 2009 top 2 Aussies):
Gorman is among the few who could reach an international podium in pool and open water.
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