SWIMMING: The second day of the AYOF swimming competition produced many close finishes and three new AYOF records.

The highlight of Friday morning’s heats was the men’s 100m breaststroke, where the AYOF record, previously broken in 2007 by Peng Cheng of China with a time of 1:03.62, was beaten not once, but twice.

Kazusa Araya of Japan charged forward in heat one to take the record with his time of 1:03.48, but he was stripped of it in heat two when teammate Kohei Goto swam a time of 1:02.73.

The women’s 100m freestyle was a display of good form and tight competition, with Friday morning’s top eight performers all finishing within a second of each other.

The men’s 100m freestyle saw Alexander Graham of Australia break the AYOF record, with his time of 50.17, replacing the record of 51.05, set in 2009 by fellow Australian Luke Kerswell.

There was more excitement as Jenna Strauch of Australia Green broke the AYOF record with her performance in the women’s 100m breaststroke, achieving a time of 1:08.90.

The 400m individual medleys were a display of great technique and talent. In the women’s event, Sydney Pickrem of Canada broke free of what had been a neck and neck race to ease forward into the top qualifying place.

In the men’s, Ryo Fujimoto of Japan swam a solid race, coming in first, almost a full body length ahead of his competitors.

The finals will take place at 6pm on Friday night at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

Hannah Moore
Olympics.com.au

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