Champ Seebohm lifts tally

LAINE CLARK EMILY Seebohm has secured another bronze medal for Australia at the world shortcourse swimming titles in Hangzhou, China.

The long-course world champion took Australia’s tally to four medals (one gold, three bronze) at the halfway mark of the six-day titles with a third placing in the 200m backstroke final.

On a busy day three in which Seebohm contested six races, the Australian veteran led the 200m final under world record pace but was swamped in the last 50m.

Lisa Bratton claimed a surprise gold ahead of fellow American and hot-favourite Kathleen Baker.

Seebohm then backed up to scrape into the women’s 100m individual medley final as eighth fastest.

Seebohm was not done yet, chiming into the mixed 4x50m medley relay team – also featuring ex-partner Mitch Larkin – who came seventh in the final.

US superstar Caeleb Dressel led the Americans to 4x50m medley relay gold in a new world record 1:36.40sec.

World body FINA has moved to appease angry athletes by announcing it will launch the richest swimming event in history next year.

FINA says it will hold the invitation-only, three-leg Champions Swim Series – boasting $5.5 million in prize money – between March and May.

But it may be too little, too late for the under-fire world body.

The sport’s biggest names will assemble in London next week to create a new athletes association they hope will stand up to FINA after the world body blocked swimmers from contesting a proposed professional league.