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Friday, 21 November 2008

Australian swimmers sizzle in Brazil

13/10/2008 2:21:00 PM.  | AAP
Australian swimmers Marieke Guehrer and Christian Sprenger have scooped the pool after the opening World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil overnight.

The pair won the prestigious High Pointscorers Awards with stunning performances on day two of the meet.

Guehrer added to her first-day gold in the 100 metres butterfly with eye-catching wins in both the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle.

Her butterfly time was the seventh fastest all-time and just 0.27 outside the world record set earlier this year by fellow Australian Felicity Galvez.

The Athens Olympic backstroker clocked 25.63 to score 991 points lowering the colours of nine-time world short course champion Therese Alshammar in the best swim of the meet.

She also caught the eye in the 100m freestyle final, clocking the fifth-fastest time by an Australian of 53.27 to defeat another Swede in Josefin Lillhage, who had a stint some years ago under Guehrer's Melbourne coach Ian Pope.

Guehrer finished the weekend with three gold medals and a silver from four swims.

While the Melbourne-based former Queenslander was the star of the women's events, Queensland's Beijing Olympian Sprenger was the standout in the men's, wrapping up the breaststroke treble.

He added the 100m gold medal to his day-one wins in the 50m and 200m, equalling his personal best time of 58.19, set in Canberra prior to the Olympics and scoring 981 points to top the men's FINA pointscore.

Sprenger's time was 0.72 secs outside Ed Moses' long-standing world record set at the Stockholm World Cup in 2002.

The five-strong Australian team shared in the medals with Kyle Richardson, Sophie Edington and newcomer Jackie Staples all on the podium.

Richardson finished with a bronze medal to Olympic 1500m freestyle champion Oussama Mellouli in the 200m freestyle final, clocking a time of 1:46.68.

Edington added silver in the 100m backstroke to her silver in the 50m on day one, again beaten by Brazil's Fabiola Molina while Staples finished with bronze in the 200 metres butterfly in 2:10.99.

The World Cup comes to the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on October 25 and 26 and will feature a host of Australian stars, including Beijing Olympic golden girls Bronte Barratt and Emily Seebohm and Tunisia's Mellouli.

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