Edington: WR 50 back - 27.67
2008-03-23
Craig Lord
And another one bites the dust: second Australian takes down world backstroke record in 24 hours; MacKenzie and Barratt go 4:04.73 and 4:05.19 in 400m free
Sophie Edington (AUS) shattered the world record in the final of the 50m backstroke at Australian nationals in Sydney, her 27.67sec a whopping 0.28sec inside the mark set by Emily Seebohm, 15, just 24 hours before hand. Seebohm was not in the race, having opted to swim only the 100m semis, in which she cracked the minute mark. Second in the 50m final was Tayliah Zimmer, on 28.24.

The world-record progression:
28.09 Yang (CHN) 2007
28.00 McGregory (USA) 2008
27.95 Seebohm (AUS) 2008
27.67 Edington (AUS) 2008

Linda MacKenzie claimed the Commonwealth 400m freestyle record in 4:04.73, keeping at bay the fofmer holder Bronte Barratt, who claimed her Olympic berth in 4:05.19. Barratt's Commonwealth standard had stood at 4:05.93 since she took down Tracey Wickham's 1978 standard of 4:06.28 last year. MacKenzie's best had been 4:06.79.

Here's how the 400m race in Beijing is stacking up (the all-time ranking is the first figure):


1 - 4:02.13 Manaudou FRA
2 - 4:02.20 Hoff USA
4 - 4:04.23 Jedrzejczak POL
5 - 4:04.24 Ziegler USA
6 - 4:04.73 MacKenzie AUS
7 - 4:05.19 Shibata JPN
7 - 4:05.19 Barratt AUS
8 - 4:05.20 Pellegrini ITA

The semi-final of the 100m breaststroke saw Tarnee White (AUS) leap-frog Americans Jessica Hardy and Tara Kirk on the all-time list with a 1:06.04 for second slot time that takes her just within a second of Leisel Jones's 1:05.09 world record. Jade Edminstone was next through on 1:07.10, with Jones on 1:07.48, after a heat of 1:07.10.

The Hy-Tek results system being used by Swimming Australia is a poor tool when it comes to reporting events: no splits, no indication of who swam in which semi. Dreadful. Glad to see that someone finally thought it useful to post Rice's world-record splits at Swimming Australia:


29.05; 1:02.30; 1:36.97; 2:10.87; 2:49.89; 3:29.08; 4:01.02; 4:31.46.