Green Equals Gold for Australia

Swimming Australia
Published: Jan 19, 2013 08:04:14 AM Updated: Jan 20, 2013 08:44:08 PM

Night three began in sensational fashion with Australia Green’s Amelia Gould and Australia Gold’s Alanna Bowles dead-heating for gold in the Women’s 400m Freestyle. In a see-sawing battle, the lead changed on several occasions but the margin never stretched beyond a second. Fittingly both swimmers touched in 4:12.67 and will sit alongside each other as the new AYOF record holders for the event.

Gould’s coach Adam Kable was pleased that his swimmer was able to fight out the race under extreme pressure.

“It was fantastic to see both swimmers walk away with the win. From Amelia’s perspective she has really stepped it up this season which has come about through hard work.”

“Competing at events such as the Youth Olympics will better prepare Amelia and the rest of team for future international events,” said Kable.

Gould was equally impressed with her performance.

“It feels really good,” Gould says. “To share it with another Australian, I couldn’t have asked for anything more, especially after breaking the 200m Freestyle earlier in the meet.”

Japan’s Tsuzumi Hasegawa secured third position with her time of 4:15.79.

The close finishes continued when Australia Gold’s Jemma Schlicht and Japan’s Rino Hosoda touched the wall together in the Women’s 100m Butterfly. Schlicht led at the 50m spilt, but was challenged late by Hosoda who made a surging lunge to stop the clock at 59.73; the same time as Schlicht. That time was also enough to secure the AYOF record and continued the phenomenal performances of swimmers at this years event. 17 year-old Madeline Groves was also in the frame, finishing 0.06 behind with a time of 59.79.

Australia Green was able to secure the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle relay off the back of a spectacular lead off leg from Victorian Alexander Graham who went out in 49.46; an AYOF record for the Men’s 100m Freestyle.

Australian Green was never headed from there despite the efforts of the Australia Gold team who produced a brave effort to stop the clock at 3:22.53. Australian Green’s team of Alexander Graham, Mack Horton, Blake Jones and Jake Rees re-wrote the AYOF record with their time of 3:21.85.

Men’s 400m Freestyle

16 year-old Mack Horton held on over Brazilian Luiz Lopes Melo in the Men’s 400m Freestyle. Both swimmers went stroke for stroke throughout the race, but Horton was stronger over the concluding stages to post a 3:54.19. Lopes Melo (3:54.54) was a touch behind in second with Yuto Sato (3:54.54) of Japan third.

Men’s 100m Butterfly

The strong Japanese squad won another gold with Takeshi Kawamoto first to the wall in 53.82. He broke the long-standing record (53.85) set by Corney Swanepoel of New Zealand. A great performance by Alexander Graham saw him move from fourth to second in the last 50m to tie for silver with 17-year-old Masato Sakai of Japan (54.05).

Women’s 200m backstroke

Japan’s Maho Tsujimoto held the lead for the first 100m before falling back into the group allowing Canadian flag bearer Sydney Pickrem to surge forward and take the win (2:13.02). Mayuo Goto of Japan came through in the last 100m to secure a close second (2:13.33) and Hayley Baker of Australia Green glided into third place with a time of 2:14.14.

Men’s 200m Backstroke

A dominant display from Japan’s Takeshi Kawamoto saw him take gold in 2:01.61. Mitchell Pratt chased hard for silver (2:02.52) with Lachlan McLeish (2:05.25) of Australia Gold third.

Women’s 4x100m Relay

Australia Gold maintained a visible lead throughout the relay to break the six year-old AYOF record set by China (3:46.42) with their time of 3:46.26. Australia Green hit the wall a second later (3:47.13) followed by Japan (3:48.19).

Team Scores

Japan – 212

Australia Green – 187

Australian Gold – 172

Canada -83

New Zealand – 61

Hungary – 41

Brazil – 38

China – 22

Oceania – 3

For full results please click here.