Schipper lets fly at idol’s record

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JESSICAH Schipper mowed down another Petria Thomas record when she smashed her Commonwealth mark in the 100m butterfly final at the Australian shortcourse titles last night.

In a race featuring three individual gold medallists from the Montreal world titles, Schipper slashed 0.37sec off Thomas’s 2002 record to win in 56.56sec ahead of Libby Lenton.

Schipper’s time was just 0.22sec off American star Natalie Coughlin’s world record.

The 18-year-old produced a brilliant finish to edge out Lenton (56.96sec), who broke the 100m freestyle world record twice at this week’s titles at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

Last night’s swim continued Schipper’s run of record-breaking performances.

The Queensland teenager knocked over Commonwealth records held by Thomas and Susie O’Neill on her way to gold and silver respectively in the 100m and 200m butterfly in Montreal last month.

“I knew the competition would be tough and we were all very tired after such a long time away, but I just went out there and tried my best,” Schipper said. “To be faster than them (Thomas and O’Neill) is amazing, but I have a long way to go to achieve what they achieved.”

Completing a top week of competition, Lenton returned to the pool two events later to win the 50m freestyle final ahead of Athens Olympian Michelle Engelsman.

Lenton, a gold medallist in the 50m freestyle in Montreal, won in 24.44sec ahead of Engelsman (24.59sec), who missed selection for this year’s world championships.

Queensland sprinter Ashley Callus is making a habit out of touching the wall at the same time as his opponents, recording a dead-heat with West Australian Eamon Sullivan in the 100m freestyle final.

In his return to competition, Callus looked set for victory before a brilliant finish from Sullivan had the pair touching in 47.91sec. It was a similar scenario for Callus two years ago when he dead-heated with Ian Thorpe in the final of the 100m freestyle at the 2003 world titles trials.

Matt Welsh continued his unbeaten streak in the men’s backstroke to win his 24th national shortcourse title in the 200m.

HEAD coach Alan Thompson has identified poor preparation as a key factor behind the sub-standard performance of the Australian men’s team in Montreal.

After reviewing the team’s performances with national youth coach Leigh Nugent this week, Thompson said some swimmers had expected results to come too easily.

Thompson met coaches and athletes to reinforce this as the team looks ahead to its next major assignment, the March Commonwealth Games.

“I think some of the guys prepared poorly,” Thompson said yesterday.

“In hindsight, some of the coaches believe their athletes did not prepare as well as they had done in the past, or probably should have done.”

While Grant Hackett is the Australian captain, Thompson said he needed support to lead the young men on the team.

“I think sometimes people think, ‘We’ll leave it for Grant to do’,” Thompson said.