Seebohm not short on titles with powerhouse medley win in Adelaide 

Dual Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm added her third gold medal of the meet with an all-the-way victory in the 200m individual medley on night four of the Australian Short Course Swimming Championships at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre in Adelaide tonight.

Seebohm (Nudgee Brothers, QLD) used all her strength to swim away from the field in the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke legs, hanging on in the freestyle to win in a time of 2:07.54.

She proved too powerful for training partner Ellen Fullerton (2:09.84) with Aisling Scott(Indooroopilly) third in 2:10.26.

The win comes after her victories in the 100m backstroke in a new Commonwealth record and 100m individual medley earlier in the meet.
This gold medal also takes her overall individual Australian Short Course gold medal tally to 11, since her first titles – the 50 and 100m backstroke double in 2009 – a feat she will try and repeat tomorrow night.

Earlier in the evening Seebohm only just missed her own Australian All-Comers record to win the second semi-final of the 50m backstroke in 26.37 – 0.04 outside the record she set in the morning heats.

National short course champion in the 200m backstroke Madison Wilson (26.71) and backstroke bronze medallist Hayley Baker (27.49) will both join Seebohm in the 50m backstroke final.

Seebohm will be chasing individual title number 12 to round out a successful five-day meet which will almost certainly see her named in Australia’s 20-strong Australian Team for the 2014 FINA World Short Course Championships in Doha next month.

The 22-year-old wrapped up her successful evening in the pool when she anchored the Nudgee Brothers team (Ellen Fullerton, Mikkayla Sheridan and Amy Forrester) to a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay over St Peters Western and Melbourne Vicentre - splitting 52.52. 

“I have not been to a World Short Course before so I’m very excited, I was in Doha last year for a training camp and so I know the facilities well which is always an advantage,” said Seebohm.

“I am treating events like these Australian Championships and the Doha Worlds as preparation for the (Rio) Olympics and the short course season helps with (improving your) turns.

“It’s something that can make that little bit of a difference and (if I’m going to) get that world record in the 100m long course, getting some good turns and working on that here is really good for that race as well.”

Meanwhile swimming’s man-of-the-moment, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Mitch Larkin has continued his golden run with a stunning win in the 50m backstroke.

Larkin (St Peters Western, QLD) who smashed his own 100m backstroke Commonwealth record two nights ago used the turn his advantage and took the title in a personal best time of 23.33secs – 0.29secs outside Bobby Hurley’s Australian record.

Hurley finished second in 23.46 with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ben Treffers (Burley Griffin, NSW) third in 23.61.

Larkin, coached by Michael Bohl in his Brisbane-based Podium Performance Centre, will chase the backstroke treble in the morning when he lines up in the heats of the 200m backstroke – the event he finished eighth in at the London 2012 Olympics.

Gold Coaster Leiston Pickett (Southport) joined the likes of Leisel Jones and Sarah Katsoulis – as the only swimmers over the past decade to claim the 50-100m short course breaststroke double when she clocked a personal best time of 1:05.21 to win the 100m breaststroke final.
 It followed her gold medal defense of her 50m breaststroke title on night two.

Pickett held on to beat the fast finishing defending champion and dual Olympian  Sally Hunter(Marion, SA) 1:05.34 with Victorian teenager Jessica Hansen (Nunawading, VIC) third in a personal best time of 1:05.76 – moving her into the Australian All-Time Top 10.

The men’s 50m butterfly final came down to the touch with Commonwealth Games representative Jayden Hadler taking the win and the short course national title in 23.06. Commercial swimmers Tommaso D’Orsogna snuck into the silver medal position in 23.14, getting the better of bronze medallist Daniel Lester (23.14) by just 0.01 of a second.


The Multi-Class events were dominated by Cairns Grant Patterson and Katherine Downie(Westside Christ Church, WA) who both won their 50m freestyle titles with Patterson adding the 100m breaststroke which saw Tanya Huebner (Melbourne Vicentre) take the women's title.

The silver and bronze medals in the men’s 50m freestyle Multi Class went to Mitchell Kilduffand Tim Antalfy respectively while Timothy Disken and Ahmed Kelly won silver and bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke Multi Class.

In the women’s Multi Class events Taylor Corry added to her ever-growing medal tally with a silver in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

Paralympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Maddison Elliott rounded out the medals with a bronze in the 50m freestyle multi class and Madeleine Scott took the silver in the 100m breaststroke.



 
Short Course Champions so far...
Men's 800m Freestyle: Matt Levings
Men's Multi Class 400m Freestyle: Rowan Crothers
Men's 200m Freestyle: Cameron McEvoy
Women's 200m Butterfly: Brianna Throssell 
Men’s 50m Breaststroke Multi Class: Tim Disken
Women’s 50m Breaststroke Multi Class: Madeleine Scott 36.81
Men's 100m Backstroke: Mitch Larkin 49.25 CR/AR
Women's 100m Backstroke: Emily Seebohm 55.47 CR/AR
Men's 400m IM: Travis Mahoney
Women's 50m Breaststroke: Leiston Pickett
Women's 50m Butterfly Multi Class: Madeleine Scott
Men's 50m Butterfly Multi Class: Tim Antalfy
Men's 100m Breaststroke: Jake Packard
Men's 100m Butterfly: David Morgan
Women's 800m Freestyle: Brianna Throssell
Women's 200m IM Multi Class: Katherine Downie
Men's 200m IM Multi Class: Joshua Alford
Men's 200m Breaststroke: Jake Packard
Women's 100m Backstroke Multi Class: Taylor Corry
Men's 100m Backstroke Multi Class: Sean Russo
Women's 100m Freestyle: Emma McKeon
Men's 400m Freestyle: David McKeon
Women's 200m Backstroke: Madi Wilson
Men's 50m Freestyle: Matt Abood
Women's 50m Butterfly: Emma McKeon
Men's 200m IM: Thomas Fraser-Holmes
Women's 100m IM: Emily Seebohm
Women's 400m Freestyle: Emma McKeon
Men's 100m Freestyle Multi Class: Grant Patterson
Women's 100m Freestyle Multi Class: Taylor Corry
Men's 50m Freestyle Multi Class: Grant Patterson
Women's 50m Freestyle Multi Class: Taylor Corry
Women's 100m Breaststroke: Leiston Pickett
Men's 50m Backstroke: Mitch Larkin
Men's 50m Butterfly: Jayden Hadler
Women's 200m IM: Emily Seebohm
Men's 100m Breaststroke Multi Class: Grant Patterson
Women's 100m Breaststroke Multi Class: Tanya Huebner