At Australian trials in Sydney, Brenton Rickard became the seventh man to crack the 2:10 over 200m breaststroke with a Commonwealth record of 2:09.51, the third fastest ever behind Brendan Hansen (USA) and Kosuke Kitajima (JPN). Rickard's previous best was a 2:10.99, at 17th on the all-time list, while his latest effort came off a 1:01.92 split.
The sub 2:10 club now reads:
Second to Rickard was Christian Sprenger, 22, who leapt from 47th to 17th on the all-time list, improving from 2:12.73 to a 2:11.02.
World champion Jessica Schipper clocked 2:06.82 in the 200m butterfly final ahead of 17-year-old Samantha Hamill, on 2:07.61. That kept Felicity Galvez off the Australian team in that event by 0.06sec and showed just how hard it is to make the grade for the Dolphins shoal of 2008. Galvez has been building up slowly for a few years now, only to be have her hopes dashed in Olympic year. At half-way, she was 0.77sec up on Hamill but the teenager came home a touch tougher. Galvez had a best of 2:07.88 going into trials, while Hamill's 2007 best was a 2:10.00.
Cate Campbell, 15, led the way into the final of the 100m freestyle ahead of Libby Trickett (nee Lenton), 54.37 to 54.43. Leisel Jones led qualifiers in the 200m breaststsroke with a 2:25.00.