By Priyant Pratap
CANBERRA, Australia, May 9. AFTER the biennial showdown between the U.S. and Australia, The Duel in the Pool, was dissolved with the Americans desiring better competition, the Japanese squad assembled in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport with National and Youth teams from Australia and Japan going head to head in long course competition.
The overall session was considerably slow, save for two standouts. Ryosuke Irie came within a fingernail of breaking Aaron Peirsol's 100 back world record, while Libby Trickett missed hers by .01.
The meet began with the mixed 400 freestyle relay with Australia's Trickett leading out in sensational form with the second-fastest 100 free ever swum by a woman, a 52.89 – handing over to Matthew Targett, Marieke Guehrer and Eamon Sullivan, beating out the B team that led off with Matt Abood, featuring Sally Foster, Tomasso D'Orsogna and Felicity Galvez, 3:25.20 to 3:27.32. Both teams beat out the Japanese A and B teams that went 3:31.16 and 3:34.24.
Had Trickett broken her world record in this swim, we would have seen a repeat of the infamous 52.99 against Michael Phelps in Sydney since FINA does not recognize the mixed event for world records. At the time, Trickett thought she'd broken the world record and became the first to clear 53 seconds. Later, she used the confidence of knowing that she could post that time and set the current world record with a 52.88.
Irie, the poster boy of Japanese Swimming missed Peirsol's world record time by just .02 with a 52.56 in the men's 100 back. Peirsol's 52.54 from the 2008 Beijing Games remained on the books. Irie's teammate Junya Koga finished second in 53.38, while Ashley Delaney of Australia took third in 53.45.
The men's 400 IM was won by Japanese entrant Ken Takakuwa (4:16.38) and teammate Yuya Horihata (4:18.19), while Stephen Parkes (4:25.25) came third. The women's 100 fly followed with Jessicah Schipper winning in 57.86 just a second off her best from Trials. Felicity Galvez posted a 58.60 for second. Galvez will contest this event in Rome as a result of Stephanie Rice withdrawing to clear her schedule at Worlds. As for the men's 100 fly, Andrew Lauterstein beat Japan's Takuro Fujii in a touch out, 51.52 to 51.53. Ryo Takayasu topped Australia's Adam Pine for third, 52.73 to 52.87.
Japan's Aya Terakawa dipped under a minute in the women's 100 back with a 59.98, while Belinda Hocking took second in 1:00.02 by contrast. Emily Seebohm finished a disappointing fourth behind Shiho Sakai, 1:00.18 to 1:00.89.
In what turned out to be a surprising women's 100 breast, fastest-seed Tarnee White finished back in fifth with a 1:08.31. Hitomi Nosa won in 1:07.63 with Sarah Katsoulis taking second in 1:07.67. Similarly, Brenton Rickard finished fifth in the men's 100 breast with a 1:01.20, while Ryo Tateishi (59.48) and Yuta Suenaga (1:00.68) of Japan took the top two spots. Tateishi's time is the fastest in the world this year.
Eamon Sullivan (48.40) and Matt Targett (49.04) went 1-2 in the men's 100 free for Australia with Targett having just flown in from the U.S. to compete. Impressively, Trickett went under the 53-second mark again in the individual swim with a 52.95 to her credit. Despite relatively slow times compared to Trickett, teammate Guehrer (55.30) and Shayne Reese (55.70) gave the Aussies a top three sweep in the women's 100 free.
In the middle distance women's 400 free, Melissa Gorman pulled off an upset of Bronte Barratt with a one-second victory, 4:10.08 to 4:11.54. Olympian Takeshi Matsuda claimed victory in the men's 400 free with a 3:47.82, while Robert Hurley took second in 3:48.21.
Australia entered three teams into the women's 400 free relay compared to Japan's two entries. The move was likely due to the undecided nature of who should represent Australia at Worlds in both heats and finals. Guehrer, Galvez, Foster and Trickett won in 3:38.04, while Cate Campbell, Merindah Dingjan, Reese and Meagen Nay took second in 3:39.06. Trickett's split of 52.95 was by far the fastest, while Nay's was the second best in 54.37. Japan's Haruka Ueda, Hanae Ito, Misaki Yamaguchi and Yayoi Matsumoto took third in 3:41.80.
The first day of swimming concluded with the men's 400 free relay. Kyle Richardson, who scraped onto Australia's B team, clocked the second-best split with a 48.67. Sullivan anchored the A team with a quick 48.33. The A team of Lauterstein, Targett, Abood and Sullivan won in 3:16.03, while Japan's A team of Fujii, Yoshihiro Okumura, Ranmaru Harada and Makoto Ito took second in 3:17.05 for a Japanese record.
The meet will conclude with a second session tomorrow that will consist of 50 and 200 events as well as the medley relays.