NEWS I'll be moving all the News on the pages ASAP! :) Stay tuned! Really sorry, still trying to get there with all the updates!!!, Pls check out the 'old' versions where the news it being 'housed' ... 'old design' main page and the 'old design' (but still pretty current!) news page. June 12, 2005 Kiwi Hannah McLean has Aussies measure in 100 back, on fire in 200; G takes 50s comfortably Telstra Grand Prix #2 - AIS, Canberra - 10-12 June New Zealand's World Champs representitive Hannah McLean has put in an impressive showing this weekend at the Telstra Grand Prix #2 in Canberra. In this morning's final session for the meet, McLean improved on her time posted the night before, in the 100m backstroke heats, of 1:02.44 to take the final in a very sharp time for the middle of hard training, 1:01.96. Giaan also improved on her swims from her heats to final - her 1:02.22 for second place in the final up 0.67s from her heats swim. Fellow World Champs rep. Sophie Edington also put in a solid showing for third place (1:02.97) in wrapping up what has been a pretty busy weekend for her at the GP! Giaan Rooney continued on where she left off from the heats in the 50m backstroke, comfortably winning the final on Saturday morning in 28.97, Edington 2nd in 29.65 with Victorian young gun Kelly Stubbins 3rd in 30.12. McLean (NZL) dominated the 200m backstroke final, powering to the win in a sharp 2:13.92. Despite her fellow country woman, Helen Norfolk, placing second in the heats of the event 2:18.21, it was Aussies Lara Carroll in second (2:17.66) and Giaan third in 2:18.78. Aussie Worlds rep. Tay Zimmer didn't swim this weekend, she, along with Grant Hackett and Alice Mills, opted not to race due to a virus (or early effects of, in some cases! Rest up, Dolphins! ;)) Giaan's results from Grand Prix #2: Head over to the Swimming Australia, GP Results section for all the weekend's results! June 10, 2005 Rooney and Edington impress in 50 backstroke Telstra Grand Prix #2 - AIS, Canberra - 10-12 June Giaan Rooney and Sophie Edington swum sharp times tonight on Night 1 of the second Grand Prix meet in the lead up to the 2005 World Champs. Giaan is the fastest qualifier for tomorrow night's 50m backstroke final in 28.87, Sophie Edington second 29.58. Great to see the girls (still!) posting such fast times even though they'd be in heavy training for the Worlds! :) You can check out all the news on tonight's action in the article on the Swimming Australia website - 'Klim to kick start opening finals session' & I'm sure the Swimming Australia website will have the full results later on. May 29, 2005 'Follow the Black Line' - SEN Radio This Tuesday night, if you can, tune in online to SEN Radio (or if you're in Melbourne or Adelaide, you can tune in using your radio - Melb. 1116 AM, Ade. 1323 AM) from 7pm - 8pm for 'Follow the Black Line' - a swimming show hosted by Nicole Livingstone and this week Ian Pope (Australian & Melbourne Vicentre super coach!) is filling in for regular co-host Daniel Kowalski... surely they'll discuss the charges from Vicentre ;) amongst many other things as we draw closer to the World Championships. I have been meaning to give a heads-up about this show, quite literally for weeks now, but - silly me! - I keep forgetting. (Unfortunately, as much as I would love to!!, I've never tuned in, entirely because Tues. night for me = social comp basketball! :-/ I've got no doubt it is a great show though - I mean, hello, 1 hr swimming talk! Bring that on!! :-)) Coincidently, there has been news in the media that SEN Radio Network is struggling a bit in terms of keeping the stations afloat, so aside from the fact you'll be able to get a swimming fix, you'll also be doing the best we sports lovers can to try and keep this network going. Janine Pietsch (GER) snares 50m backstroke World Record! Janine Pietsch swum a scorching 28.19 to set a new WR in the 50m backstroke on Day 5 of the German Nationals / World Champs Trials, held this week in Berlin. The previous World Record - 28.25 - was set almost 5 years ago by Sandra Volker, also of Germany. Volker was third in the final (29.51) and Antje Buschschulte was second in 28.50. I wonder ... it must be somewhat, you'd imagine, bittersweet for Volker that the WR has gone to a fellow German... :) Giaan now holds the second fastest time swum in 2005 for the 50m backstroke with her 28.45 swum at the Aussie Nationals (which was #1 on the FINA rankings before, naturally, the WR swum by Pietsch bumped G back a rung ;-)) ... Awesome stuff! ... Looking forward to this match up at the Worlds for sure :) In the 100m backstroke at the German Nationals, Antje Buschschulte was a comfortable winner in the sharp time of 1:00.98, the only qualifier to swim for Germany in the event @ Worlds, with second place going to Franziska Gähler (1:02.98) and third to Jenny Mensing (1:03.28). It is promising for our Aussie backstrokers, with Sophie Edington's AR of 1:01.09 (and, hey, Giaan's 1:01.14 not a whole lot further back ;-)) only marginally slower then that of Buschschulte - I know, I know ;0) a lot of things can change from now till Montreal, but still, it's encouraging that our girls are right up there!! May 14, 2005 'Victoria becomes can-do state' - The Age An interesting article, which appeared in The Age last Saturday, about the rise and rise of Victorian swimming - Victoria becomes the can-do state May 8, 2005 Welcome to the new-and-improved Super G site! Greetings everyone! :) Welcome to the new design of the site! I hope you like it & feel free to leave feedback! Over the coming days while I upload everything, there still may be pages which have the 'old' design, but hang in there! :) A MASSIVE Thank you to Misch for her awesome work on this design! You can check out her site (LaurenJackson.org) and further examples of her other fantastic work on can be found on the CIYIK Design site! May 7, 2005 Now for the 'G news... Grand Prix #1, Brisbane - Day 2 In today's 100m backstroke, recording a somewhat slow time, but very understandable due to being in the middle of hard training for this year's Worlds, Aussie representative Sophie Edington was victorious in 1:03.33, leading home her Worlds team mate Giaan Rooney (1:04.51), and 2004 Olympian Marieke Guehrer third in 1:04.62. In night 1 action... Giaan Rooney was victorious in the Women's 50m backstroke event with a super swim! Giaan's time of 29.47 pretty darn impressive, just a little over a second outside her Commonwealth record!!, it was a tight race, but enough to beat home Sophie Edington (29.57) with Marieke Guehrer third in 30.33. Interestingly, while I'm not 100% sure, it looks like Giaan didn't contest the 200m backstroke perhaps all but confirming it's not on her agenda for the Montreal Worlds. This Grand Prix - which wrapped up the Dolphins World Champs camp staged at the Gold Coast this week - is the first of two meets to be swum in this format in the lead up to Worlds, Grand Prix #2 is to be held in Canberra in June. Star of the meet Libby Lenton added another win to her weekend this morning, an impressive 54.76 swim to victory in the 100m freestyle saw her swim the 6th fastest time this year! This was to go with her busy night one which was choc-a-block full of racing - an impressive 8th-fastest-in-2005 win in the 200m freestyle, victory in the 100m butterfly, and 2nd in the 50 free. National coach Alan Thompson shared his thoughts on the week, as published on the Swimming Australia website: “We had a very good Orientation camp on the Gold Coast leading into the meet, which we are using as part of our preparation for Montreal. “It is another stepping stone long the way and I’m particularly pleased with the spirit and the attitude of this team. We’ll come together for Telstra Grand Prix 2 in Canberra on June 10, 11 and 12 before we head to Orlando in Florida for our Staging Camp on July 7.” April 28, 2005 Auction for UNICEF Check out this album to see a collection of pictures of the suit, which is signed and was worn by Giaan in Athens, won by Fernando a little while ago through the eBay auction in which all proceeds went to UNICEF and their Indonesian Earthquake appeal. Great work Fernando in not only supporting this great cause with, of course, his winning bid! - but for also taking some niiiccee pics and sharing them with me and you all too! :) Also big props to Giaan on her big part in this auction, and to all the other swimmers involved, and the Australian Swimmers Association. April 22, 2005 Commonwealth Games news 'Australia Post helps deliver the Games'- Melbourne 2006 Official website 'Baton goes to Africia' - Herald Sun April 16, 2005 Pullbouy.co.uk - Interview with Ian Pope on the 05 Aussie Champs! 2005 Australian Trials review: Ian Pope - from UK swimming site Pullbuoy - An interview-style review of the 2005 Aussie Champs with Ian Pope - There's a fair bit on Giaan and her performance @ Nationals and her prospects at Worlds which makes for good reading!, and in general it's an all 'round great interview - be sure to chek it out! :-) April 6, 2005 Well... I'll definitely get my swimming fix now ;-) The latest edition of eSwimmer is full of all sorts of news, one of the biggest being the great news that Sydney will be host to the FINA World Cup short course meet, Australia's only meet on the World Cup circuit. As it moves away from being swum in Melbourne for the first time (I believe due to funding probs. in the lead up to the Comm Games '06), it's fantastic news that Oz is still hosting the event, and although not in it's 'long time home' of Melbourne, I'm sure you'll agree it's good news that we've not lost the meet from our shores all together - Personally I'm very chuffed it's going to be in Sydney & I'll be looking fwd to the opportunity to go to that meet! :-). There is also the confirmation that Sydney will again host the 2005 QANTAS Skins! Yay! ;-) AS WELL as that (news galore!) the 2005 Telstra Swimmer of the Year Awards will also be staged in Sydney! See this section of the eSwimmer newsletter for all the details there! All Great news! :-) Lastly, Kate's Confidential reports on the engagement of a 'big time' and long time member of the Aussie swim team - I'll leave you check it out if you haven't already seen! ... ;-) ..... Congrats...! [FYI: All the Athens 2004 news now has it's own section and can be easily accessed by clicking the Athens '04 'picture banner' a little further up the page here :-) ] The rest of all the news will be uploaded ASAP!