women's butterfly
With Susie O’Neill, the dominant force in Commonwealth women’s butterfly for so long, no longer competing, the stage is set for another swimmer to step up to the mark. Inevitably another Australian Petria Thomas has emerged form O’Neill’s shadow to become one of the premier women’s fly swimmers in the world at this current time. The reigning world 200m champion will be the swimmer to beat in all of the events, including the 50m, where she is ranked behind England’s Ros Brett. It is hard to see her not leaving Manchester with at least 2 individual gold medals, as she is over a second clear in the rankings form her nearest challengers over 100 and 200m
- country: Canada
- ranking: 50:23rd, 100:2nd, 200:2nd
- Sydney: 100:-, 200:10th
- Fukuoka: 50:-, 100:-, 200:10th
- Moscow: -
That said, English swimmers lead the queue of swimmers behind Thomas, and should she slip up, it is altogether possible that England could pick up a gold medal. Georgina Lee, the British Record holder over 100 and 200m, will aim to dip under both the 60s and 2:10 barriers and if she does so will surely gain medals in both events. Team-mate Marge Pedder is ranked third behind Thomas and Lee in the 20om, well clear of 4th place and should complete an English medal double in that event. England’s third contender is Brett inteh50m. She leads the rankings and will definitely be amongst the favourites, but anything can happen on the day in the shorter events.
Beyond those four swimmers, however it is not as clear where the medal challenges are going to come from. Second string Aussie Nicole Irving will be looking for final placings and may sneak a medal in the 50m, but the Australian challenge does not seem to extend much further. Canada’s Jennifer button is in with a medal shout in the 100m and team-mate Audrey Lacroix should final, but the Canadians do not appear to have a representation any of the other events.
Meanwhile, South Africa has high hopes for Mandy Loots who is ranked highly in both the 100 and 200m events and New Zealand's only final hope would seem to be medley specialist Liz Van Welie in the 200, if she competes in that event.