The World Short-Course Swimming Championships suffered the loss of yet another top athlete as Australia and the United States dominated the opening heats on Wednesday.
Double world champion Roland Schoeman, the top draw here in the absence of swimming greats Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, was a late withdrawal citing a lack of fitness, organisers said.
He performed in the Commonwealth Games and he’s tired. He’s not fit,” said a Fina official.
The 50m butterfly world record-holder from South Africa won three gold medals at last month’s Games in Melbourne despite suffering from a cold.
With Thorpe and Hackett out through illness and injury, the short-course championships have also been hit by a scheduling crunch just two weeks after the Commonwealth Games and with national championships looming in the US.
Bus-loads of schoolchildren were brought in to fill the void at the 15 000-seat Qi Zhong stadium, more than an hour’s drive from central Shanghai, where the United States and Australia made an early impression.
Australian world record-holder Jade Edmistone was fastest in the women’s 50m breaststroke with 30,34 seconds, a good 0,4s off her own global best, with American Jessica Hardy second.
Edmistone’s performance was an early challenge to team-mate Brooke Hanson, who took a record-equalling six titles at the previous championships in 2004 and who was third-fastest on Wednesday.
Jessica Schipper, who accounted for three of the 16 swimming golds won by Australian women in Melbourne, was more than a second clear of China’s Yang Yu in the 200m butterfly heats.
Australian short-course specialist Matt Welsh led the timings in the 100m backstroke.
Ryan Lochte flew the American flag in the 100m butterfly while teammate Kaitlin Sandeno qualified fastest in the women’s 400m medley, well ahead of China’s Qi Hui.
China’s women were also runners-up to the Americans in the 4x200m freestyle.
Meanwhile reigning World Cup holder Ryk Neethling, now South Africa’s top athlete here, was fastest in the men’s 200m freestyle ahead of Italian Massimiliano Rosolino.
New Zealand’s Hannah McLean was quickest in the 100m backstroke ahead of Australia’s Tayliah Zimmer while Latvian Vidvuds Maculevics led Jin Kuen-Min of South Korea in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Five events will be decided later on Wednesday in the eighth World Short-Course Championships, where athletes from more than 120 countries will compete until Sunday. – AFP
