The Australian Swim Team has won five gold medals at the FINA/Arena World Cup in Stockholm overnight, with Kenneth To taking out the 100m backstroke and Individual Medley, alongside gold medals to Geoff Huegill, Rachel Goh and Belinda Hocking.
With just eight athletes representing Australia at the two day meet, the small team won a total of nine medals on the opening day of competition, with To’s two gold coming in fine fashion.
Having come of age at this year’s FINA world championships in Shanghai where he finished seventh in the final of the 200m IM, the 19-year-old from NSWIS took out the 100m backstroke by more than a second in 52.07, before backing up for the 100m IM in a personal best time of 52.02.
Melbourne’s Rachel Goh was Australia’s third gold medallist of the night, taking out the 50m backstroke in 26.63 from teammate Belinda Hocking (27.08).
Hocking then went on to show her dominance in the 200m backstroke, the same event in which she won silver in Shanghai, winning by more than two seconds in a time of 2:05.76.
In the women’s freestyle AIS based Angie Bainbridge from Newcastle picked up two silver medals in the 50 and 200m respectively with personal best swims.
In the 50m she finished second to Sweden’s Therese Alshammar (23.80) in a time of 24.57, while the 22-year-old who celebrates her birthday today, then had to settle for another silver to a Swede in the 200, with Sarah Sjostrom hitting the wall in 1:52.92 and Bainbridge just half a stroke behind in 1:53.03.
In other results Sally Foster from the AIS finished fifth in the women’s 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:06.52 and sixth in the 50m freestyle in 26.16.
The Stockholm leg of the FINA/Arena World Cup concludes tomorrow.
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