At one of the first big national championships at which swimmers have tested their short-cours form wearing 2010 suits, Felicity Galvez got the better of world l/c champion Jessicah Schipper on the opening night of the Australian Telstra Short-Course Championships in Brisbane for a 2:04.76 victory in the 200m butterfly.
Galvez, reigning 50 and 100m world s/c champion, was out in 58.74 and returned in 1:06.02. That kept at bay Sam Hamill, on 2:06.18, and Schipper, on 2:07.12. In 2009, Galvez was 9th best in the world on 2:03.31, while she won the 2008 world s/c crown in 2:04.90. Hamill, in the absence of double Olympic medley champion Stephanie Rice, backed up later with a dominant 4:32.58 victory in the 400m medley to put a smile on the face of her coach Peter Gartrell. Queensland teenagers Amy Levings, on 4:36.27, and 15-year-old Mikkayla Masselli-Sheridan, on 4:36.29 followed Hamill home.
Galvez finds herself celebrating a best time (to a fashion). Before shiny suits, her best was a 2:04.97, today's effort faster and setting the pace for the 2010-11 short-course season around the world. The world shiny suit record stands at 2:00.78 to Liu Zige (CHN), while the global mark on the eve of madness stood at 2:03.53 to Otylia Jedrzejcza (POL).
Speaking through her federation's press office, Galvez said: "I don’t really train for the 200m butterfly so to get the win gives me great confidence going into the rest of the meet. It’s a great honour to win a national title. We are so strong as a swimming nation, so to get up and win gold is just fantastic. It really does mean a lot to me."
As for Schipper, she later explained to local reporters that she was suffered a "niggle" in her back that she put down to boxing - a training exercise, we assume, rather than a bout as a fancied fighter. "It was a boxing accident but it will be all right. It's getting better every day," Schipper said. "No more boxing for me."
The 200m free for men was a thriller: Nick Ffrost got the touch in 1:45.12, 0.1sec ahead of defending champion Tommaso D’Orsogna, with Kyle Richardson third in 1:45.50, the entire final split by less than a second.
Ffrost, 23, moved from the AIS in Canberra to train under Glenn Baker at Southport Olympic on the Gold Coast late last year. His victory made him Aussie champ over 200m both long- and short-course. Next target: the Commonwealth crown in Delhi in October. "At the most I’m sitting sixth fastest in the world and fastest in the Commonwealth. I’ve never been in this position before so I’m really looking forward to capitalising on it come October," said Ffrost. "My newfound confidence in my own ability has been a major contributor in my recent success and a lot of that goes to the work I have been doing with Glenn Baker at Southport on the Gold Coast."
In semi-finals, Christian Sprenger took lane four for the final of the 100m breaststroke in 59.04, Brenton Rickard next through in 59.84; Leiston Pickett led the way in the 50m breaststroke, on 30.46, in the forced absence of Leisel Jones; defending champion Emily Seebohm cracked out a 57.47 in the 100m back to match her all-time/all-suits best from a year ago;
and Daniel Arnamnart led the way in the 100m backstroke on 51.81 (not far from his 51.10 shiny suit best from last year), ahead of Beijing bronze medallist Hayden Stoeckel (52.32) and Australian record holder Ashley Delaney (52.71).
