Three-time Olympic champion Libby Trickett squeezed into Australia's sprint relay team at the London Games with a fifth place finish in Tuesday's 100-metre freestyle final at the trials. Trickett, 27, teary-eyed and her lip quivering with emotion, savoured the achievement of reaching her third Olympics after making a comeback from 18 months out of the sport.
"I'm so over the moon that I have the opportunity to represent my country at my third Olympic Games," Trickett said. "It's unbelievable and I'll probably start crying at some point because this whole journey for me has been probably more challenging, emotionally, spiritually and mentally than it has been physically.
"I just knew how fast the girls were going to be tonight and it was going to take a lot. I was two-hundredths of a second slower than last night and that meant I still got away with the fifth placing." Melanie Schlanger (53.85) and Cate Campbell (54.01) will swim in the 100m freestyle for Australia in London after their top-two finish, while Trickett needed to finish in the top-six to gain a start in the 100m relay.
Trickett swam 54.21, inside the Olympic qualifying time and enough to get her to London. She finished with the silver medal in the event at the 2008 Beijing Games. In the men's competition James Magnussen shaded Eamon Sullivan by one-hundredth of a second to be the fastest qualifier into Wednesday's 50m freestyle final.
World champion Magnussen, 20, who missed the 100m freestyle world record by 0.19secs in winning Monday's final, clocked a personal best 21.87secs to Sullivan's 21.88. In two swims in the 50m at the trials Magnussen has carved a massive 0.54secs off his best one-lap time.
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