Trickett On Trail Of De Bruijn: 56.81 100 Fly
2008-03-23
Craig Lord
Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) stormed to a 56.81 victory over Jessica Schipper's 57.31 at Australian Olympic trials in Sydney

Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) stormed to a 56.81 victory over Jessica Schipper's 57.31 at Australian Olympic trials in Sydney. Trickett's time is the second sub-57sec effort after the phenomenal 56.61 of Inge de Bruijn (NED) in 2000.

The Australians both had a best of 57.15, the time in which Trickett, as Lenton, claimed the world title in Melbourne a year ago. Asked whether she was ready to attack the world 100m freestyle world record, Trickett told AAP: 'Hopefully it bodes well, sometimes you never really can tell. The first one at an Olympic trials is always a bit harder because you have not made the team but now that I am there and I am on it , it is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. It is a relief and now I can really go about swimming my heart out.'

The 100m breaststroke went to Brenton Rickard in 1:00.04, a touch ahead of Christian Sprenger, on 1:00.22.

Emily Seebohm, fresh from breaking the world 50m backstroke record, joined the sub-minute club with a 59.78 Commonwealth record in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke. Kirsty Coventry's 59.42 cannot count for a record she would have had had the president of Zimbabwe not decided to starve his people to death. Seebohm then lost her world record in the 50m to Sophie Edington.

Seebohm, 15, is the sixth woman (and fifth fastest) to race below the minute: the prospect of a sub-minute Olympic final is alive in an event that has never been witnessed a sub-minute swim in Olympic waters before. Seebohm's previous best was a 1:00.51 in the semis at Melbourne 2007.

Patrick Murphy led the field through to the 200m freestyle final in 1:46.67, 0.01sec ahead of Grant Hackett.