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Trickett grabs relay berth

Adelaide - 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 100m 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 21.87 to Sullivan's 21.88.

In two swims in the 50m at the trials Magnussen has carved a massive 0.54 off his best one-lap time.

"I saw Eamon get the 21.8 before our semi and I thought 'I don't know if I can match that' but I am still on a high from last night and it's coming pretty easy at the moment," Magnussen said.

"I'm going to back myself to get the job done, rest up for tomorrow and it will be great to go quicker than that again."

Sullivan, who broke the 100m world record in the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics, was surprised with his time which almost pipped the red-hot Magnussen.

"I've been floating around the mid-22secs for a lot of the year in heavy training, so I was expecting to drop down quite a bit," Sullivan said.

"It helps the have the pressure off to make the Olympic team... and now I can relax a bit more and focus on my minor skills that can make a difference."

Others to qualify for London in Tuesday's finals were Daniel Tranter (1:58.19) and Jayden Hayden in the 200m individual medley, Mitch Larkin (1:57.90) and Matson Lawson in the 200m backstroke.

Tessa Wallace (2:26.31) and Sally Foster will swim in the 200m breaststroke at the Olympics with former world record holder Leisel Jones fourth.

Former world champion Michael Klim missed his last chance to qualify for London with the 14th fastest time in the 100m butterfly semi-finals and announced it was his swansong race.

Klim, 34, on the comeback trail after four years out of the pool, could not go the pace with his younger rivals and finished in 53.72 behind fastest qualifier Chris Wright (51.83) into Wednesday's final.

But another 'golden oldie' two-time Olympic medallist Geoff Huegill, 33, will compete in the final after the fifth fastest time of 52.57 in the first semi.
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