MELBOURNE - Campbelltown's Amanda Pascoe continued her outstanding form in preparation for this year's World Swimming Championships in Japan with a gold medal swim in the 400 metres freestyle on the opening night of the Tip Top National Age Swimming Championships in Melbourne tonight.

A record 1400 swimmers have converged on Melbourne for Australian Swimming's biggest ever National Age meet, including Olympians Leisel Jones, Kasey Giteau and Jennifer Reilly and eight members of Australia's world championship team for Fukuoka.

Pascoe held off a strong challenge from Australian East Asian Games representative Kate Krywulycz (SLC Aquadot, NSW) and Melissa Morgan (Burnside, SA) to win the 16 years final in a personal best time of 4:15.72