SANTA CLARA (AFP) - Australian and Japanese dominated Sunday’s final day of the Santa Clara Invitational swim meet with three triumphs for each nation in preparation for next month’s London Olympics.

Aussie veteran Leisel Jones won the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:07.37, 1.08 seconds ahead of American Alia Atkinson, with Aussie Sarah Katsoulis third in 1:09.08. Aussies also swept both 100 backstroke crowns, with Emily Seebohm winning the women’s race in 1:00.00 and Ashley Delaney taking the men’s 100 back in 54.89, .62 of a second in front of Aussie runner-up Hayden Stoeckel.
Japanese swimmers swept the 200 butterfly with Natsumi Hoshi taking the women’s race in 2:07.32, 2.34 seconds in front of American Jasmine Tosky, and Takeshi Matsuda won the men’s 200 fly in 1:54.57, 1.86 ahead of Aussie Nick D’Arcy. Japan’s Ken Takakuwa won the men’s 200 individual medley in 2:00.55, .89 in front of compatriot Yuya Horihata. Canadian Scott Dickens won the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:00.69 with Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima third in 1:01.56. American Caitlin Leverenz took the 200 individual medley in 2:10.81, .37 in front of Aussie Stephanie Rice. Venezuela’s Alejandro Gomez with the men’s 1,500 freestyle in 15:30.06, 1.41 seconds ahead of South Korean Lee Hyun-Seung.
Phelps wins again: Michael Phelps won his final race before the US Olympic trials later this month, capturing the 200-meter butterfly on Sunday for his third victory of the weekend at the Longhorn Elite Invitational. Phelps, a 14-time Olympic champion who took a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, led from start to finish to win in 1min, 54.79secs with China’s Wu Peng second in 1:56.71 and American Neil Caskey third in 1:59.82. With the triumph, Phelps erased a pool record that had been his first world record — a mark of 1:54.92 in 2001 at age 15.
Phelps went on to lower that world record and win his first world title in the event last in 2001.
“I wanted the pool record to stand just because that was my first world record,” Phelps said. “This is kind of where everything started going. This is a great pool for me.” Phelps won the 100 butterfly on Friday and the 400 individual medley on Saturday at the meet, but had not been happy with his showing at the meet.
“Over the weekend I hadn’t had that great of swims,” Phelps said. “Hopefully going into trials we can fix that and be ready like this every day.” Megan Romano swam the fastest time in the world this year to win the women’s 100 backstroke in 1:00.19 and Brendan Hansen, who helped Phelps win gold in the 2008 Olympic 400 medley relay, won the men’s 100 backstroke in 1:01.16.