Sullivan Wins Medley Silver

Eamon Sullivan and the Australian 4x100m medley relay team were unable to prevent American superstar Michael Phelps from claiming his eighth gold medal from an incredible Beijing performance.

Sullivan, Stoeckel, Rickard and Lauterstein instead claimed silver in another epic race that had fans in awe of what was unfolding in front of them.

Australia was placed fourth when Rickard jumped in following the opening backstroke leg, and Rickard continued his impressive form chasing hard on Hanson of the US to send Australia through second into the butterfly leg.

The change over was as close as Australia would get however, after a brilliant first 50m from Lauterstein, Phelps blew the competition out of the water in the second 50m to give his country an unassailable lead in the 100m freestyle.

Sullivan was the man charged with the responsibility of getting as close to Lezak as possible and holding off any challengers for silver, which came in the form of Japan. Sullivan swam a measured and strong leg, and indeed pulled some ground back on the Americans, but after the performance of Phelps it was too little too late.

Sullivan and the rest of the Australian team were proud of silver and the big improvements made by the medley team in recent years.

“It’s something we have been working towards for four or five years now,” Sullivan said.

“The (men of the Australian team) have really lifted.”

Lauterstein suggested the team would improve significantly still.

“We said we were going to give these guys a shake and we certainly did,” he said.

“There are good things to come for us four. We are four young guys, they have Jason Lezak and Aaron Peirsol, who are a bit older.”

The US victory in world best time sealed a remarkable 25th world record at Beijing’s Water Cube.