Sprinters Steal The Show On The Final Day In Perth

On the final day of the 2014 BHP Billiton Super Series the Australians took home eleven more gold on home soil in Perth giving them a total of 22 wins out of the 39 events swum at the competition. They also took the overall competition title with a total of 629 points.

The final standings are as follows:

1. Australia – 629
2. Japan – 523
3. China – 423
4. South Africa – 332
5. Brazil – 230

The two biggest show stoppers of the day were the Australian sprint due of Cate Campbell and James Magnussen who finished their sweeps of the sprint freestyle events on the final day of competition.

Both started out the day by joining Tommaso D’Orsogna and Bronte Campbell, winning the the mixed 4 x 100 freestyle relay in a new world record time of 3:23.29.

• D’Orsogna – 23.95/49.65
• Cate Campbell – 24.93/52.83
• Magnussen – 22.67/47.29
• Bronte Campbell – 25.83/53.52

China finished second in a time of 3:29.79 followed the Japanese who recorded a time of 3:32.94.

In her second event of the day, the women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay, Campbell recorded a 52.90 anchoring the relay.

It wasn’t until the end of the evening that Campbell would stand up on the blocks for an inidividual event, saving the best for last. Campbell won the women’s 50 freestyle in a time of 24.21, only seven one-hundredths of a second off her textile best of 24.14, which she recorded in the final of the 50 freestyle at the World Championships in Barcelona.

The time is Campbell’s third best textile swim of her career and is 27 one-hundredths of a second faster than the 24.46 she posted at last year’s Super Series event.

Bronte Campbell finished second in a time of 24.82, which is not far off her 2013 best of 24.59 while 15 year old Qiu Yuan of China finished third, well behind the leaders, touching in a time of 25.81.

Magnussen’s schedule on Saturday was identical to Campbell’s. After taking part in the mixed 4 x 100 freestyle relay he went on to record a time of 47.54 as part of the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

Magnussen then took the men’s 50 freestyle in a time of 21.88, which is a season’s best and also destroys the time of 22.21 that he recorded at the 2013 Super Series. Ning Zetao of China finished second in a time of 22.23 followed by Shinri Shioura of Japan who finished third recording a time of 22.44.

Another highlight of the evening was Kosuke Hagino‘s dominate performance in the men’s 400 IM. The Japanese star took the event in a time of 4:09.82 nearly four seconds faster than his fellow countryman and 400 IM World Champion, Daiya Seto, who finished in a time of 4:13.68.

This weekend Hagino got the best of his rival Seto in both the 200 and 400 IM events. Hagino’s time in the 400 IM was better than his 2013 best of 2:10.77 and not far off his lifetime best of 4:08.94 which he recorded in 2012.

South African Chad le Clos finished a distant third posting a time of 4:16.71.

Hagino

• 27.04/57.27 (30.23)
• 1:29.70 (32.43) 2:01.52 (31.82)
• 2:36.58 (35.06) 3:11.87 (35.29)
• 3:41.81 (29.94) 4:09.82 (28.01)

Seto

• 26.38/ 57.06 (30.68)
• 1:30.35 (33.29) 2:03.62 (33.27)
• 2:38.38 (34.76) 3:14.56 (36.18)
• 3:44.62 (30.06) 4:13.60 (28.98)

le Clos

• 26.71/ 57.37 (30.66)
• 1:30.11 (32.74) 2:02.58 (32.47)
• 2:40.60 (38.02) 3:18.54 (37.94)
• 3:48.60 (30.06) 4:16.71 (28.11)

In the women’s event Miyu Otsuka of Japan took the event in a time of 4:37.33. Otsuka’s time is less than a second off her lifetime best of 4:36.64 which she recorded in 2012. 16 year old Zhou Min of China finished second in a time of 4:38.16 followed by Australian Kerry McMaster who hit the wall in a time of 4:40.93.

Olympic champion Ye Shiwen had a disastrous race finishing fourth in a time of 4:41.03.

World Championship silver medalist Alicia Coutts took the women’s 100 butterfly. Coutts’ winning time of 57.60 is more than a second fast than the time of 58.66 that she recorded at last year’s event. Ellen Gandy finished second in a time of 58.16 followed by Natsumi Hoshi of Japan who finished third posting a time of 59.65.

In the men’s event Chad le Clos collected his first gold of the competition touching the wall first in a time of 52.66. It was not an easy win for the world champion who finished 12 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Australian Christopher Wright. Wright’s teammate Daniel Lester finished third in a time of 53.06.

• le Clos – 25.32/52.66 (27.34)
• Wright – 25.09/52.78 (27.69)
• Lester – 24.59/53.06 (28.47)

On the first day of competition South African Karin Prinsloo broke African records in the 100 and 400 freestyle winning a bronze and a silver. Today Prinsloo did not break any records, but finished off collecting a medal of each colour by winning the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:57.04. Bronte Barratt, who beat Prinsloo in the 400 freestyle on the first day of competition, finished second only nine one-hundredths of a second behind the South African.

15 year old Qiu Yuhan finished third in a tim eof 1:59.15.

Prinsloo

• 27.74/57.65 (29.91)
• 1:28.01 (30.36) 1:57.41 (29.40)

Barratt

• 28.04/57.90 (29.86)
• 1:28.19 (30.29) 1:57.50 (29.31)

Qiu

• 28.03/58.40 (30.37)
• 1:28.76 (30.36) 1:59.15 (30.39)

The men’s 200 freestyle was also a thriller as Kosuke Hagino and Australian Cameron McEvoy battled the entire race. In the end Hagino came away with the victory posting a time of 1:46.35 followed by McEvoy who finished in a time of 1:46.68. Australian David McKeon finished a distant third touching in a time of 1:48.21.

Hagino

• 25.51/52.71 (27.20)
• 1:20.00 (27.29) 1:46.35 (26.35)

McEvoy

• 25.14/52.27 (27.13)
• 1:19.59 (27.32) 1:46.68 (27.09)

McKeon

• 25.52/52.79 (27.27)
• 1:20.54 (27.75) 1:48.21 (27.67)

Australian Taylor McKeown took the women’s 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:23.94. She was followed by Mio Motegi of Japan who posted a time of 2:24.50 followed by Kanak Watanabe who recored a 2:25.01.

Mao Feilian of China took the men’s 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:11.32 just ahead of Yasuhir Koseki of Japan who hit the wall in a time of 2:11.52. Koseki’s teammate Akih Yamaguchi finished third in a time of 2:12.47.

he women’s 400 free relay was a no-doubter, which was entirely expected based on results of earlier freestyle events at this meet. Bronte Campbell, Madeline Groves, Emma McKeon, and Cate Campbell combined for a 3:35.54, which just missed the time that the Australians did at their home World Championships in 2007 as an Australian All-Comers record.

The slowest time on that relay was a 54.8 from the 18-year old Groves: an indicator of how good this relay can be. With nobody over the age of 21, they also got splits of 54.4 from Bronte (on a leadoff), a 53.3 from Emma McKeon, and a 52.9 from Cate Campbell to anchor.

The next closest relay was the Chinese women over 7 seconds behind in a 3:43.17, though admittedly they’re without many of their best sprinters. The South Africans took 3rd in 3:45.10, and Japan was 4th in 3:45.31.

The men’s 400 free relay was quite as big of a domination for the Australians; however, it still wasn’t close either, as they cruised to a 3:13.95 to beat Japan’s 3:17.64.

This was another very young relay, with swimmers ranging from Cameron McEvoy’s 19 at the leadoff (48.77) to Tommaso D’Orsogna’s 23 years (48.79) on the anchor. In between were a 48.8 from 21-year old Kenneth To and a 47.54 from the team’s star, 22-year old James Magnussen (47.54).

Japan also had a young group, with nobody over the age of 23 either, and picked up a 49.24 leadoff from Shinri Shioura en route to their silver.

China took 3rd in 3:22.02, and the Brazilians were DQ’ed.

Australia’s young, rising star Mack Horton continued to impress in the distance freestyles, winning the men’s 800 in 7:53.88. The world’s first three times under 8 minutes this year came at this meet, with Kohei Yamamoto (7:56.36) and Myles Brown (7:57.63) wrapping out the top three.

In the women’s race, which was swum combined, 20-year old Jessica Ashwood won in 8:27.09. That actually clears, by half-a-second, her swim from last year’s World Championship: at least the second time she’s accomplished that since Barcelona.

China’s Yiwen Shao was an 8:36.42 for 2nd in the women’s field.

The Women’s sprint breaststrokes, not surprisingly, were dominated by the Australians. Leiston Pickett took the win in 31.20 to defend her title from last year, and the veteran of the field, Sally Hunter, was 2nd in 31.50.

The highest non-Aussie finished was China’s 18-year old Yuze He in 3rd with a 32.13; Japan’s Kanako Watanabe, whose best distance is 200 meters, was only 5th in this race in 32.74.

The men’s 50 breaststroke was a battle of two World Championship finalists, but the home-field advantage ruled again, as Worlds silver medalist int he event Christian Sprenger won in 27.54, with Joao Gomes Jr. from Brazil taking 2nd in 27.67.

In the women’s 100 backstroke, Chinese teenager Yuanhui Fu, who made a lot of noise in Barcelona, won in 1:00.05, with Japan’s Sayaka Akase taking 2nd in 1:00.48. Australia’s Emily Seebohm, the defending meet champion, was 3rd in 1:00.98, which marked the 1st time on the day that the Australian women were kept out of the top 2.

The Australian men didn’t land a top 2 spot either in that event, as China won again in 53.42 from Jiayu Xu, which beat World Champion, and class of the field, Ryosuke Irie (53.62). Australia’s top finisher was 27-year old Ashley Delaney in 54.25, and though the Australians didn’t win, overall this meet had a much better performance than we saw last year in the event.

In the women’s 400 medley relay the Australian team made up of Emily Seebohm (1:00.29), Sally Hunter (1:08.45), Alicia Coutts (58.07) and Emma McKeon (52.96) took the event with relative ease beating the Chinese team by over four seconds.

China finished second in a time of 4:03.86 followed by Japan who posted a time of 4:04.88.

In the men’s event the Japanese team consisting of Rysouke Irie (53.95), Yasuhiro Koseki (59.78), Takuro Fujii (52.60) and Shinri Shioura (48.88) finished first in a tight race with the Australians who finished second in a time of 3:36.43.

China finished third in a time of 3:37.99.

Full results can be found here