Record breaking Albany Creek teenagers Bronte Barratt and Kylie Palmer have set up a mouth watering showdown in tonight’s 400 metre freestyle final at the Telstra Australian Short Course Swimming Championships after cruising through the heats at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre this morning. Ian Hanson and David Lyall report from poolside….

The pair easily qualified one-two for tonight’s big final, clocking 4:07.42 and 4:08.16 respectively, with defending champion Angie Bainbridge (Hunter, NSW) (4:09.73) ominously close in third spot.

Barratt and Palmer have been in sterling form over the last five weeks, breaking three Commonwealth records between them.

Their history making feats began with Barratt erasing Elka Graham’s Commonwealth short course 400m mark in July before wiping out Tracey Wickham’s legendary 29-year-old long course record eleven days ago at the Japan International. Palmer joined the party last night when she removed Amanda Pascoe’s five-year-old 800m from swimming annals.

Going on current form, Barratt’s five week old record of 4:00.66 is definitely under threat tonight. The world record, held by troubled French starlet Laure Manaudou, stands at 3:56.09.

That record is not the only mark under threat tonight with a specially convened record attempt by an Australian men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team on n the program.

Kenrick Monk (SOPAC, NSW), Grant Hackett (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC), Kirk Palmer (Barker Aquatic, NSW) and Grant Brits (SOPAC, NSW) – the top four placegetters in the individual 200m freestyle on Wednesday night - will shoot for the 2001 world record of 6:56.41 set by the indomitable team of Bill Kirby, Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim and Hackett.

OTHER FINALS

In other big finals tonight, Libby Lenton (Commercial, QLD) is the fastest seed in the women’s 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly, Jono Newton (Sydney University, NSW) is the top qualifier in the men’s 50m freestyle and Shayne Reese (Carey Aquatic, VIC) heads the field in the women’s 100m individual medley.

WOMEN’S 200M BACKSTROKE

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Joanna Fargus (Commercial, QLD) is the fastest qualifier for her pet event, clocking a personal best of 2:07.97 to win heat five ahead of 2003 winner Stephanie Williams (Hunter, NSW) (2:09.50) and fellow teen Meagen Nay (St Peters Western, QLD) (2:09.59). The main challengers will be defending champion and heat six winner, Athens Olympian Fran Ad***** (Norwood, SA) (2:08.34), her AIS training partner and heat seven winner Belinda Hocking (Albury, NSW) (2:10.13) and two-time winner from 2004 and 2005 Tay Zimmer (Kingscliff, NSW) (2:11.44). Fargus’ time was ninth on the Australian all-time list.

MEN’S 400M FREESTYLE

World record holder and three-time champion Grant Hackett (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) heads the qualifiers for tonight’s final, clocking 3:44.21 to win the fifth of five heats ahead of fellow Athens Olympic 4x200m freestyle relay silver medallist Nicholas Sprenger (St Peters Western, QLD) (3:46.27). Hackett first won this title back in 1997 before winning it again in 2005 and 2006. Sprenger is back to full health and aiming for another Olympic berth after 12 months of injury and illness. Third fastest qualifier for tonight’s final is Nick Ffrost (Southport Olympic, QLD) 3:46.93 and his AIS team mate Robert Hurley (Wests Illawarra Aquatic, NSW) 3:47.44 is fourth.

MEN’S 200M BREASTSTROKE

AIS trained Albury 21-year-old Craig Calder jumped into the Australian all-time top ten list at ninth with the morning’s fastest time of 2:10.26 in the 200m breaststroke. Calder qualified just ahead of Christian Sprenger (Commercial, QLD), who swam 2:10.46, Brenton Rickard (Brothers, QLD) in 2:10.84, Luke Trickett (Commercial, QLD) (2:13.01) and Commonwealth record holder Jim Piper (West Coast, WA) (2:13.53).

MEN’S 200M INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY

Defending champion and Australian record holder Leith Brodie (Albany Creek, QLD) was the only swimmer to break 2 minutes in today’s heats – clocking 1:59.80 to finish ahead of Athens Olympian Adam Lucas (West Coast, WA) – 2:01.39. Dual Olympian and Sydney 2000 200m butterfly bronze medallist Justin Norris (Hunter, NSW) was third best in 2:01.48. Brodie and Lucas staged a classic battle in the 400m individual medley last night with the former grabbing victory with a withering last two laps.

MEN’S 100M BACKSTROKE MULTI-DISABILITY

Outstanding Sydney 18-year-old Peter Leek (Wizards, NSW) is priming himself for another record-breaking night in the pool after qualifying first in the 100m backstroke (1:05.69) for EADs. Leek has re-written the world record books this week, including setting another new mark this morning, to bring his total to seven. In hot pursuit will be Jeremy McClure (West Coast, WA), whose 1:04.49 was a world record for his classification. The next qualifiers were Michael Anderson (Southport Olympic, Qld), Jeremy Tidy (Arena, WA) and another multi-world record breaker, Commonwealth Games golden boy, Matt Cowdrey (Norwood, SA).

Places in multi-disability events are calculated on the percentage of the world records in the respective classifications. It is possible for a swimmer to break a world record and miss a medal if three other swimmers better the former world record in their class by a greater percentage.

WOMEN’S 100M BACKSTROKE MULTI-DISABILITY

At just 14-years-of-age, Samantha Gandolfo (Loretto Aquatic, VIC) was the top qualifier in the women’s multi-disability 100m backstroke with a time of 1:15.22, from Hannah MacDougall (Carey Aquatic, VIC) (1:16.14) and Ellie Cole (Kings, VIC) (1:12.32).

MEN’S 50M BREASTSTROKE MULTI-DISABILITY

Rick Pendleton (Bayside, NSW) (32.45) topped the qualifiers in the multi-disability 50m breaststroke, from Leek (36.03) and Daniel Bell (Geelong City Aquatic, VIC) in 32.94.

WOMEN’S 50M BREASTSTROKE MULTI-DISABILITY

In the women’s multi-disability 50m breaststroke, Paralympic gold medallist Sarah Bowen (49.95), finished as the number one qualifier ahead of Katrina Porter (West Coast, WA) in 52.94 and MacDougall (42.84).

MEN’S 50M BACKSTROKE (Semi finals tonight / final Saturday night)

Fresh from his Commonwealth record in last night’s 100m event, backstroking maestro Matt Welsh (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) was back in action in the 50m heats and is the fastest qualifier for tonight’s semi-finals, clocking 24.81 ahead of young guns, Ashley Delaney (Nunawading, VIC) (24.90), Michael Jackson (City of Perth, WA) (25.11) and Robert Hurley (Wests Illawarra Aquatic, NSW) (25.17). Welsh’s Commonwealth record stands at 23.31 and the world record belongs to Germany’s Thomas Rupprath at 23.27.

MEN’S 50M BUTTERFLY (Semi finals tonight / final Saturday night)

Former Auburn University NCAA relay champion Matt Targett (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) set the standard in this morning’s 50m butterfly heats, clocking a personal best time of 23.66 to be the faster qualifier, before withdrawing from the semi-finals (to concentrate on tonight’s 50m freestyle final). It leaves defending champion Matt Welsh (23.91) on top of the semi-finalists, ahead of last night’s 100m winner, Southport Olympics’s Andrew Lauterstein (24.20), Warringah Aquatic rookie Mitchell Patterson (24.25) and City of Perth’s Michael Jackson (24.28). Targett’s time was seventh on the Australian all-time list.

WOMEN’S 100M BREASTSTROKE (Semi finals tonight / final Saturday night)

Carey Aquatic’s new recruit, four-time winner and world record holder Leisel Jones has taken the first strokes towards title number five with an impressive heat win today in 1:06.97, defeating Sally Foster (Central Aquatic, WA), 1:07.76, in the sixth heat. Heat four winner, Jones’ Carey training partner Sarah Katsoulis also looked strong, clocking 1:07.44, as did heat five winner, last night’s 50m winner Jade Edmistone (Commercial, QLD) 1:07.24.