Campbell And Coughlin: 53.30 and 53.39 100 Free Bests
2008-05-17
Craig Lord
Sprint dam builds ahead of Beijing as Aussie teenager and American record holder spar at the Santa Clara meet in California

The women's sprint battle is hotting up: at the U.S. Grand Prix in Santa Clara, California, teenager Cate Campbell (AUS) clocked a storming 53.30 ahead of an American record of 53.39 for Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif.) in a 100m freestyle tussle. Coughlin's standard had stood at 53.40 since the semi-finals at Melbourne 2007. Campbell's best had been a 53.81.

The new all-time top 10, with four Dolphins and three Dutch Divas, two Americans and Britta Steffen, now reads:


52.88 Lenton/Trickett AUS
53.20 Steffen GER
53.30 Campbell AUS
53.39 Coughlin USA
53.52 Henry AUS
53.58 Weir USA
53.58 Veldhuis NED
53.77 de Bruijn NED
53.77 Dekker NED
53.96 Mills AUS

More Aussie impact was on display in the 400m freestyle, in which Bronte Barratt and Kylie Palmer got the better of Kate Ziegler (The Fish, Va), the three finishing in that order in a meet record of 4:04.57, 4:05.98 and 4:07.11.

Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md.) is on the move, leading the 400m medley from block to a decision in 4:13.47 ahead of Robert Margalis (St. Petersburg, Fla.) on 4:15.05.Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Pa.), world record holder and champion in the 100m breaststroke, shaved the minute mark with a 1:00.01 effort that gave him a comfortable margin of victory over S Damir Dugonjic (SLO), on 1:01.67, with Ryo Tateishi (JPN) third in 1:01.68.

Phelps's Club Wolverine teammate Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.) continued to put in solid 200m free times, with a 1:46.24 meet record for the win over improving Dominik Meichrty (SUI), on 1:47.89, and Michael Klueh (Evansville, Ind.) on 1:48.06.

The 200m breaststroke went to Izumi Kato (JPN), in 2:27.69,ahead of a name who is inching back to where she needs to be: Olympic champ Amanda Beard (Irvine, Calif.) clocked 2:28.15 ahead of Jessica Schmitt (San Diego, Calif.), on 2:28.41.

In the 200m butterrfly, Davis Tarwater (Knoxville, Tenn.) also broke the meet record with a 1:55.93, and there was a 58.52 win in the 100m 'fly for Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Tex.) ahead of 59.21 for Mary DeScenza (Naperville, Ill.).