Ben Armbruster showed nerves of steel to overcome the chaos of a scoreboard malfunction to take down the world’s best butterfliers for the second time in a month.
The Japan Open champion powered to a dominant win in the 50m butterfly skins event at Friday night’s eccentric Aus vs The World event, helping Australia seal a 126–102 points overall victory in front of a raucous crowd at Brisbane’s Valley Pool.
Fellow Bull Shark Flynn Southam also delivered in the green and gold, producing a scorching final leg in the 6 x 50m mixed freestyle relay to anchor a superstar Australian team, including Olympic gold medallists Cam McEvoy and Shayna Jack, to a dominant victory.
But it was the battle of the butterfliers that delivered all the drama organisers had hoped for, with Armbruster emerging as the last man standing after three brutal back-to-back swims, which saw the slowest eliminated after each leg.
Bachelor of Sports Management student Armbruster teamed up with Australian 100m record holder Matt Temple to eliminate Italy’s Alberto Razzetti in the first round, setting up a showdown with Dutch champion Nyls Korstanje in round two.
With the two-minute break between races leaving the jelly-armed and wobbly-legged athletes with barely enough time to catch their breath, the event was as much a test of spirit as strength.
The drama came after the second leg when all three swimmers touched the wall together and the scoreboard initially showed Korstanje eliminated by just 0.01 seconds.
Moments later, the system crashed and when it was back online, Temple’s name was at the bottom leaving athletes and coaches visibly confused as officials scrambled to resolve the error.
After several tense minutes, organisers confirmed a grand-final rematch between Armbruster and Korstanje.
With Australia’s hopes resting on Armbruster, he steadied himself to rise to the occasion against the Dutch 100m specialist, dominating from start to finish before climbing up onto the lane rope to celebrate.
Speaking post-race to commentator Ariarne Titmus, Armbruster admitted he hadn’t expected to prevail.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t really back myself that much,” Armbruster said.
“I had some excellent butterfliers in the pool with me… they’re better in the 200m, so I thought they’d be a bit fitter and outlast me.”
Armbruster also revealed the silver lining that came of the Temple drama, with the extra minute’s rest allowing the sprint specialist to more effectively recover.
“It helped so much because my legs were absolutely cooked,” Armbruster said.
“I had to roll out of the pool and I’m probably going to roll all the way back to our team area as well because the legs are hurting.”
Armbruster was soon back on the blocks in the men’s 50m “Champion’s Race”, with the butterflier finishing second against swimmers of other disciplines after a staggered start.