The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team has secured a silver medal in Australian record time on night two of the FINA World Short Course Championships at the Sinan Erdem Arena, Istanbul.

Following a successful heat swim, the Australian final team of Tommaso D’Orsogna, Jarrod Killey, Kyle Richardson and Robert Hurley knocked over nine seconds off their heat time to stop the clock at 6:52.29 and set a new Australian short course record, erasing the previous record set in 2007.

The 2007 record was, at the time, a short course world record set by Kirk Palmer, Grant Hackett, Grant Brits and Kenrick Monk.

A podium finish was a tough ask as the Australian’s faced fierce competition from America, Japan, Germany and Russia.

The team was sitting in third with less than 50m to go when Hurley’s trademark underwater work saw him power past Germany (6:53.22) and nearly catch America (6:51.40) at the wall.

Bronze medallist from the 4x100m freestyle relay, D’Orsogna said this was a new era for the Australian Team and the positive steps forward were showing in the results.

“I think the relay events really sum up the energy and the attitude on the Australian team, with two medals from two relays the results are proving that our team is doing great at the moment,” D’Orsogna said.

Australia’s second medal for the night came in the women’s 50m breaststroke final.

A surprise smoker from lane seven, Australia’s Sarah Katsoulis picked up a bronze medal with a sub 30-second swim.

Katsoulis showed superb early speed to sneak her way onto the podium in a time of 29.94, her fastest time in a textile suit.

The Victorian, who has trained with Coach Rohan Taylor for 16 years, hit the wall just behind the Lithuanian Olympic 100m breaststroke Champion Ruta Meilutyte who finished in a Championship record time of 29.44 and Alia Atkinson from Jamaica in 29.67.

With the top three the only swimmers under the elusive 30-second mark, Katsoulis said this medal has given her confidence leading into her pet event, the 100m breaststroke.

“I’m definitely more confident about my speed in the first 50 after that swim and hopefully I can keep it up and swim well in the 100 too,” Katsoulis said.

Dual Olympic medallist Angie Bainbridge recovered from a slow start to take fourth spot into the final of the women’s 100m freestyle tomorrow night.
The 23-year-old hit the wall in 53.30, almost one second faster than her heat swim from earlier today.

Fellow sprinter Marieke Guehrer finished ninth in 53.59 missing the final by 0.07 of a second.

The backstroke quartet weren’t as lucky tonight with Rachel Goh (57.31) and Grace Loh (57.34) finishing in fourth and sixth place respectively.
With less than one second separating the top six swimmers, the girls only narrowly missed out.

Similarly, in the men’s 100m backstroke Ashley Delaney (50.61) and Robert Hurley (50.63) were both quick off the blocks but were out-touched at the wall and had to settle for fourth and fifth place respectively.

Swimming Australia