Fast, faster, fastest; the swim team goal in Gwangju
Swimming Australia, July 3, 2015:
Swim fast in the heat, get faster in the semi-finals and then go even faster in the final
That’s the message from Australian Uniroos swim team head coach Tracey Menzies as the 20-strong squad prepare to take to the water at the Nambu University International Aquatic Centre in Gwangju commencing Saturday.
With the FINA World Championships getting underway in Kazan, Russia in less than three weeks, the Uniroos swim team consists of a mix of youngsters keen to make their mark and a more experienced group looking to make their way back into the Dolphins team for Rio.
Whether at their first international meet, like Curtin University’s open water swimmer Sacha Downing, or a defending Universiade champion like ANU’s Justin James, the swim team follows the flippers of some great names in Australian swimming.
The honour roll (see the fact box below) of Universiade gold medal winners includes Olympic champions Cate Campbell, Alice Mills, Mark Kerry and Jon Sieben and Olympic medalists Rob Woodhouse and Justin Lemberg.
Menzies, speaking like a true coach, says the opposition isn’t fully known yet, but it doesn’t matter, with the team looking to produce as many personal and season’s best performances as possible.
“We haven’t seen any start lists yet, like everyone we are trying to hunt them down, but looking across the deck there’s some good competitors, so like any meet – be prepared to race fast,” Menzies says.
“We have a couple of young ones that will probably surprise a few. There’s certainly a couple that will be knocking on the door for Rio and that’s how we’ve pitched it to these guys, that they need to put some of the senior swimmers on notice.”
As with any global swimming championship, the US will be the hardest to beat, although two years ago in Kazan, it was the host nation Russia who topped the medal tally after stacking their team with world championships-bound swimmers.
The result was 17 gold medals for the host nation, and Menzies believes that with the FINA world championships commencing on July, 24 that a number of nations, including the Russians, French and Italians could have a strong contingent of senior swim team members here in Gwangju.
Defending 200m individual medley champion Justin James is one of just two defending champions returning from Kazan (the other is Japan’s Kohei Yamamoto in the 800m freestyle).
“Justin’s looking good, he just needs to keep his head where his body is and not get too far ahead of things. He’s had a hard prep with work and uni, but he’s kept himself together very well,” Menzies says.
Yamamoto looms as the major rival to Australia’s Jordan Harrison (Bond University) in the 1500m freestyle.
Harrison finished fourth in the long event at last year’s Commonwealth Games but didn’t make the team for the world championships, so will have something to prove here. He’s the fourth fastest Australian of all time (yes you read that right) behind Grant Hackett, Kieren Perkins and the current main man Mack Horton and boasts a personal best of 14:51.02 from back in 2013. If he can reproduce that in Gwangju he will be hard to beat.
Harrison along with exciting freestyler Ami Matsuo (TAFE NSW) are two athletes with world champs experience, and men’s team captain Travis Mahoney (Deakin University) joins that pair having raced at the Pan Pacs and Commonwealth Games.
Women’s team captain Hayley Abood (Sydney University) returns for her second Universiade and along with QUT’s Ellen Fullerton will add her experience to the young Uniroos team.
Some of the talented teenagers to watch include distance freestyler Kiah Melverton (Griffith University) and butterflyer Tianni Gilmour (Queensland University of Technology), along with Deakin University 20-year-old breaststroker Jessica Hansen in the women’s events.
While Commonwealth Games medley swimmer Jared Gilliland (Queensland University of Technology), emerging butterflyer Keiran Qaium (Australia Catholic University) and US-based 2010 Youth Olympic Games gold medal winning breaststroker Nicholas Schafer (University of Wisconsin) will add plenty to an emerging men’s team.
Uniroos Media
Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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