Australia’s swimmers kick-started the Australian Youth Olympic Festival with a bang, winning eight medals – three of them gold – on night one of competition at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre tonight.

Fifteen-year-old Queenslander Samantha Hamill led the way, breaking Jessicah Schipper’s AYOF record in winning the 200m butterfly and she had two other “gold medal mates” in 15-year-old Daniel Smith (200m freestyle) and 16-year-old Belinda Hocking (100m backstroke).

Hamill, from Kawana Waters on the Sunshine Coast, clocked a time of 2:11.52 – taking 0.46 seconds off Schipper’s 2003 mark.

“It is a huge thrill to break one of Jess Schipper’s records,” Hamill said after her gold medal winning swim.

“I was determined to go out hard and try and hang on and I’m actually very satisfied with that swim.”

The pint-sized former Victorian has been in record breaking form recently, after setting a new 15 years Australian record to win the Junior Pan Pacific Championship in Maui last week – a record set by Hayley Lewis at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

Smith and his training partner at Miami in Queensland, Taylor Hardy gave Australia a 1-2 finish in the 200m freestyle, Smith winning in 1:53.64 and Hardy clocking a personal best of 1:55.27.

Both boys have overcome shoulder injuries to make the Australian team and will give the Flippers an awesome 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Hocking, formerly of Albury and now at the AIS in Canberra under Shannon Rollason, produced another outstanding performance to win the 100m backstroke which also saw fellow Australian Charlotte Clarke take the bronze.

She won in a time of 1:02.67 with Clarke clocking 1:04.28. In other events, Melbourne’s 15-year-old Ellese Zalewski smashed her own Australian 15 years record when she finished second in the 200m freestyle in a time of 2:00.57 – beaten by just 0.04 seconds by China’s Tang Yi with fellow Australian Ellen Fullerton taking the bronze in a personal best of 2:03.71.

Zalewski and Fullerton will also spearhead the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay tomorrow night. The men’s 200m butterfly saw Redcliffe’s Jack Nunn win the bronze in 2:05.72 – just 0.01 secs ahead of Australian team mate Ryan Napoleon.

AOC