Coutts grabs Australian title

Five-time Common wealth Games gold medallist Alicia Coutts, whose mum lives at Birkdale, has booked her ticket in the Australian swimming team with exciting wins in the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley at Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney on the weekend.

Coutts, who used to train in Cleveland and was the 2010 Telstra Swimmer of the Year, beat Olympic champion Stephanie Rice (2.10.41) by 0.35 of a second in the final of the 200 entity medley in a time of 2.10.06.With just 0.04 of a second sorting out the pair at the final turn, Coutts, who has never won an Australian title before, said she had to dig deep to steal the win from Rice, last year's Australian title holder and the former world record holder in the event.

"I could see her there and I thought 'you're in front, just hang on, just hang on' and I dug deep," Coutts said."Having won five Common wealth gold medals you have to step up, and I think I've done that."I just really wanted to get my first national title, so I was really happy."Rice said she was dissatisfied in her show, but happy to make the Australian team. Coutts has now booked her ticket to the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai next month.

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Rice shouldering spotlight at Aussie champs

The 2011 Australian Swimming Championships began this morning, with three-time Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Rice as the main draw. Rice, who has struggled since winning the 200m IM, 400m IM and 4x200m freestyle relay in Beijing, had shoulder surgery last year after chronic pain enforced her out of the 2010 Common wealth Games in August. She arrived at the Sydney Aquatic Center fitter than she has been since the 2008 Olympics, and she is ready to prove it here.

In the first session of beginning heats, Rice competed in the 100m butterfly and the 200m IM, qualifying for tonight's semifinals in both. The finals will be Saturday night in Sydney. Australia’s team for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai will be selected here, with the top two finishers in each event qualified for a spot on the team. But head coach Leigh Nugent has added a twist: a separate list of qualifying times based on the top 12 world rankings.

Swimmers must beat the qualifying times to be named to the team, regardless of finishing in the top two. Nugent established the harsh selection process to support contest, after a 2010 season where Australia didn't have a single swimmer ranked No. 1 in the world for the first time in 20 years.

The other big story in Australian swimming isn't developing here, but in southern Switzerland, where Ian Thorpe is training. The five-time Olympic gold medalist announced his return in February, but Thorpe can't compete until he has finished nine months on the drug-testing roster. That makes him eligible on Nov. 2, and he's expected to make his debut at the World Cup in Singapore Nov. 4-5.

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Defense Contests Charges Against Smith

A judge is currently taking into consideration whether former Harvard student Brittany J. Smith can legally be tried for her involvement in the May 2009 Kirkland shooting, despite the non-prosecution agreement she signed in July 2009.

Smith was indicted on six counts—including accessory after the fact of murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and willfully deceptive a grand jury in March 2010. Prosecutors claimed that she had lied to investigators, thereby violating the terms of the non-prosecution agreement they had made with her in replace for her cooperation against the three other defendants in the case.

However, Smith’s attorney has argued that the state does not have grounds to revoke its agreement, and Smith should not be allowed to stand trial. With Smith’s trial date set to begin in less than a month, the question of whether she can be prosecuted in this case has still not been settled by a judge.

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Saina Nehwal is world No.3

Riding on her Swiss Open victory, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has regain the number three place in the latest world ranking. Saina, who missed a couple of tournaments early in the year because of a nagging ligament injury and then suffered early exits from the Korean Open and the All England Championships, serrated up her first title of the season in Switzerland last week.

The 21-year-old now has 69721.2637 points in her kitty and is currently behind Shixian Wang (83506.4) and Yihan Wang (73988.9106) at one and two respectively. The Swiss Open title was her third Grand Prix Gold title win after Chinese Taipei (2008) and the Indian Open (2010). The girl from Hyderabad also won four Super Series finals in Indonesia (twice), Singapore and Hong Kong over the last two years. In men's singles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist P Kashyap was at the 21st place with 38415.2559 points, while Ajay Jayaram moved to 28th.

Anand Pawar and Arvind Bhat are at 42nd and 45th spot respectively. Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa drop one place to 19th spot, while Jwala and V Diju slipped two spots to 18th in mixed doubles. In men's doubles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas jumped seven places to be positioned just outside the top 20 bracket at 21st place.

Hadfield stands in for Bellamy in quarter-final

TORQUAY United's Barbara Bellamy, who slipped under my radar to play her part in the final match of the England ladies' all-conquering run to the Home International title, misses her club's TLH National Top Club quarter-final on Friday afternoon (1pm).An England regular for six years, Bellamy came off the bench for that final day win over Scotland after the national selectors had earlier dropped skip Sian Gordon's number two, Helen Tuohy.

England had a thrashing good win over the Auld Enemy 160-75 and the TLH Top Club Finals in Torquay (Friday to Sunday) will give England indoor semi-finalist Bellamy the opportunity to catch up again with England team-mates and Common wealth Games medal winners Ellen Faulkner (City of Ely) and Sian Gordon (Swale).Bellamy's unavailability for the match on Friday afternoon has forced the selectors at Plainmoor to bring in Carrie Hadfield, and they have put her at lead in the mixed fours under skip Sam Tolchard.

Torquay's opening match is a mouth-watering replay of their 2010 national final with reigning champions Swale. The local favourites will be out for revenge with the ladies' singles berth this time going to former British Isles fours champion and TLH employee Terri Kennard. Kennard faces Amy Banes while Swale's former Torquay star Gordon she beat Bellamy in the singles twelve months ago will contest the fours and play opposite young Ryan Whitlock.