Aussie girls dig deep for surprise relay bronze medal in Doha

 

Swimming Australia, Dember 5, 2014: Australia has stormed home to win an unexpected bronze medal in the women’s 4x200 metres freestyle relay on the opening night of the 12^th Fina World Short Course Swimming Championships in Doha.

The 20-strong Australian team here in Qatar was selected off the Australian Short Course Championship trials in Adelaide last month specifically for individual events with relays to be formed from the available talent.

But Australia has such a rich history in relays – especially in recent years with five Olympic gold medals to Australia’s women at the last three Games in Athens, Beijing and London.

And a new-look team put together by National head coach Jacco Verhaeren showed it wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

A trio of three youngsters – rookie Leah Neale, 19, swimming in her first international final joined WA’s emerging talent Brianna Throssell and Commonwealth Games backstroker Madi Wilson who combined with Olympic gold medallist Kylie Palmer to bring home the bronze behind the world record breaking Dutch and China.

Neale led off in 1:54.15, followed by Wilson (1:54.37) and Throssell (1:56.80) with Olympic gold medallist Palmer bringing the relay home in 1:53.27.

The girls were always in the hunt after rookie Neale's pb lead off swim had the Aussie girls in second place followed by Wilson and Throssell with the experienced 2008 Olympic 4x200m golden girl Kylie Palmer charging past the USA to take a deserved bronze medal with a spirited anchor swim.

Neale, like her fellow rookies Dan Smith (7^th in the 200m freestyle final) and David Morgan (semi-finalist in the men’s 100m butterfly) showed she was ready for the big time, leading off both the heat and the final with personal best times.

Palmer, who has moved into join Neale under coach Chris Mooney at Indooroopilly, was full of praise for her young team mates, saying she was excited about their future.

“We had a makeshift team not expecting anything and to come away with a bronze medal is amazing, these girls have got an awesome future,” said Palmer, who admits she is enjoying her swimming the most she has ever done in a career that started out at the 2006  Commonwealth Games.

“I came into this meet not thinking about results at all and concentrating on my own races and putting it together the best I can.

“Then our relay coach Michael Bohl spoke about the great tradition of the 4x200m freestyle relay and we started to get nervous.

“But we spoke about everyone doing their job and all of us delivered; for Leah to swim those two pbs in one day and in the lead off says it all. Brianna continues to prove herself and Madi just keeps going from strength to strength.”

Neale, who came to Mooney after leaving long-time coach Peter Carswell in Ipswich said it was an honour for her to be part of the Austrailan team.

“What amazing opportunity but I must admit I was very nervous having the responsibility to lead off tonight,” said Neale.

“And having Kylie to train with, room with and race with is massive – I can’t believe it – it’s so good.”

Meanwhile Gold Coast rookie Dan Smith has produced a creditable 7th place finish in a star-studded 200m freestyle final at the Fina World Short Course Championships in Doha.

The 22-year-old from the Miami Podium Centre on the Gold Coast clocked 1:42.81in a final full of big names and won by South African Olympic butterfly champion Chad Le Clos from Danila Izotov (RUS) and 5-time Olympic gold medallist Ryan Lochte (USA).

Swimming on his first Australian senior team, Smith pulled out all stops to clock a personal best time of 1:42.67 in a helter-skelter morning heat swim followed by a key role in Australia's 4x1100m freestyle relay team.

In the only other individual final featuring an Australian swimmer on the opening night, WA's Brianna Throssell finished 7th in the 200m butterfly won by Spain's Mireya Belmonte Garcia in a new WR of 1:59.61.

Meanwhile in semi-final action:

Olympian Mitch Larkin is the fastest qualifier into tomorrow night's 100m backstroke final after winning his semi-final in 49.62.

Australia will have two finalists in the women's 100m backstroke tomorrow night after Olympic silver medallist Emily Seebohm (56.32) qualified second with Madi Wilson 6th in 56.91.

And two finalists in the women's 50m breaststroke with Leiston Pickett (29.79) the 4th fastest qualifier and Sally Foster (30.08) the equal 5th fastest into tomorrow night's final.

With London Olympian Tommaso D'Orsogna the second fastest qualifier to Olympic 200m butterfly gold medallist Chad Le Clos (RSA) into the 100m butterfly final.

Le Clos clocked 49.25 to edge out D'Orsogna (49.69) in the first semi-final, with D'Orsogna's time just 018secs outside Mitch Patterson's 2009 Australian record of 49.51.

Rookie David Morgan was just outside his morning pb of 50.61, stopping the clock at 50.96 to finish 15th.

The Australian men's 4x100m freestyle relay team produced a fast finishing 5th in in 3:06.48 with Tommaso D'Orsogna clocking a sizzling 45.65 anchor swim. Cameron McEvoy led off in 46.56 followed by Matt Abood 46.78 and Travis Mahoney 47.49.

 

 

Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager 2014 Australian Swim Team, World Short Course Championships, Doha

 

Deputy Media Manager 2016 Australian Olympic Team, Rio
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Media Manager, 2014 Australian Commonwealth Games Team