Another world record for Australia

The swim caught everyone unawares as Hurley, a silver medallist in the 100m backstroke and the 400m freestyle here, claimed the record from lane six.

Russian Stanislav Donets, winner of the 100m backstroke, wasn’t slow, swimming to the silver in 23.63 for the third highest-scoring swim of the men’s meet, with Australian Ashley Delaney taking the bronze.

Hurley then stunned the crowd once again in the 200m backstroke when he went out under world-record pace by an incredible 1.14 at the 50m mark and 1.02 at 100m before slowing the clock and finishing at a sedentary 1:52.39, still a personal best.

Olympic champion Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, who finished the meet with six gold medals, had a torrid start to the evening, taking his 12th title of the series with a 15:06.23 swim in his pet 1500m freestyle, pipping an Australian and a New Zealander by narrow margins. Two events later he turned up for the 200m freestyle and said after the earlier race that he just paced himself to get the win and concentrate on the shorter event.

Unlike the 1500m, Mellouli shot to the front immediately and stayed ahead until the final touch. The swim was electric with his fifth win of the meet and No 13 for the season. He stopped the clock in 1:43.05, nearly two seconds short of Ian Thorpe’s 2000 record but a splendid time after the 1500m “warm-up”. New Zealander Michael Jack and Australian Ryan Napolean were two seconds back.

Mellouli did a “Hackett” when he eclipsed Australian Leith Brodie in the 200 IM by just three hundredths of a second. Brodie looked to have had the race won, even at the wall, but Mellouli must have stretched further to claim his 14th title and a six-race clean sheet in Sydney. He finished in 1:56.30.

Christian Sprenger (AUS) made it three from three in the breaststroke events, repeating last year’s performance in Sydney, when he smashed the wall in 58.47 in the 100m race. It brought his wins total to seven for the current Series, having won all three in Brazil and one in South Africa. The win was exactly one second off Ed Moses’ record set in Stockholm in 2002. It makes him the standout swimmer after three meets with 55 points.

Australian Matt Jaukovic’s world–record swim in the 50m butterfly on the first night made him the standout swimmer of the meet in points attained but a second world record didn’t come in the 100m butterfly, touching the wall first in 50.50, outside his personal best and well clear of the USA’s Ian Crocker’s 49.07 record set in 2004. Runner-up Chris Wright (AUS) claimed his third medal, completing a full set for the meet.

The biggest shock of the night was the inability of Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand to go the 50-100m freestyle double. The Swedish flyer could only settle for bronze in the splash-for-dash 50m as Australians Kyle Richardson (21.45) and Matthew Abood (21.92) stole his thunder.

In women’s events, Olympic bronze medallist Cate Campbell (AUS) was mowed down in the last lap of the 100m freestyle by series sensation Marieke Guehrer (AUS) in lane six. The time of 53.15 was the third fastest by an Australian and the third time Guehrer had swum a personal best in Sydney. “It was the fastest time ever I’ve come home so, sorry Cate!" Guehrer won the meet on points and stretched her lead in the World Cup to a massive 46 points.

Jade Edmistone (AUS) couldn’t add the world short course record to her long course record but was happy with 30.43, not far off Jessica Hardy’s 29.58 record. She shut out countrywomen Sarah Katsoulis (30.65) and Kristy Morrison (30.88). Edmistone missed the Beijing Olympics. “I had a long break after the Olympic trials. It was amazing to watch the Olympics at home. It gave me a bit of a stir up.”

South African Katheryn Meaklim made it win No 10 for the distance star, winning the 400 IM in 4:31.52, exactly five seconds behind Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry’s world mark. It was Meaklim’s third title of the meet and the second time she had beaten Australian Ellen Fullerton in the medley event. Meaklim then went to title No 11 with a clear victory in the 200m butterfly, finishing in 2:08.85.

She wasn’t finished there as, just after the medal presentation, she raced to the start line for the 200m breaststroke and held off Sweden’s Joline Hostman by 0.13 and Australia’s Sarah Katsoulis for her fifth gold of the meet and 12th overall.

Emily Seebohm, a member of the Australian gold-medal-winning medley relay team at the Beijing Olympics, cruised to the 100m backstroke title in 57.91, 1.4 off the record set in Singapore by the USA’s Natalie Coughlin last year. It was Seebohm’s personal best and “pleasing” considering she has only been back in the water a couple of weeks since the Olympics. Later in the evening she claimed the 100m IM in 1:00.39 and two events later, she swam a world-class 26.54 in the 50m butterfly for silver behind Marieke Guehrer.

For Guehrer, it was her best swim of the meet and was the fifth fastest all time behind Australian Felicity Galvez’s 25.32 set in Manchester this year.

New Zealand’s Melissa Ingram gained her country’s second gold medal and her third medal of the meet with victory in the 400m freestyle over Australian hopeful Bronte Barrett.

There were 156 athletes competing in the Sydney leg with competitors from 12 countries — Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand, Russia, Tunisia, South Africa, Sweden, Singapore and Slovakia.