Cate Campbell's surprise find as world record changes hands

  

Swimming Australia, July 24, 2016: Swimming's latest world record holder Cate Campbell did a double take when she walked onto the pool deck for her first training session at the University of Auburn.

There, sitting in the rubbish bin was the previous world record plaque of 52.07 with the name (Britta) Steffen removed from the pool's Honour Wall.

Campbell became the first Australian to set an individual world record in the event since Jodie Henry in 2004, with her 52.06 in Brisbane on July 2.

Joining Fanny Durack, Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp, Shane Gould, Libby Trickett and Jodie Henry in an exclusive Australian world record club.

And Cate's reaction?

"Well look what I just stumbled across," thought Campbell, who strolled into the pool after the final members of the Australian team assembled for their pre-Rio Staging Camp.

Quick to welcome Cate and sister Bronte and the Australians was Auburn head coach, 2000 and 2004 Australian Olympian Brett Hawke.

He congratulated Campbell before apologising that Auburn was still working on her updated world record plaque.

"Sorry Cate....we have been a little slow off the mark - but we have our designers working on it," Hawke told Campbell.

"For the moment you'll just see your name and the new world record written in texta."

Hawke, a 50 metres freestyle specialist, later addressed the Australian team at their first official meeting - an inspiring story of missing the Olympic team in 1996; of losing concentration on the way to the pool deck in 2000 and his satisfying fifth place finish in 2004.

The Auburn coach of 10 years has been appointed to the coaching staff of the Brazilian swim team and leaves for Rio tomorrow.

Australian Swim team assemble in Auburn

The remaining members of the Australian Swim Team arrived in Auburn late Thursday night July 21 to join their fellow team members and officially begin the staging camp ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The camp, which will run until July 31 will allow the swimmers to acclimatise as Auburn is just two hours behind Rio, the team will be training form 11am to 1pm in the morning, and 7pm to 9pm for the evening session, aligning with the competition and training schedule in Rio.

Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren said Auburn was the perfect location for this kind of camp.

“Rio is two hours ahead of the schedule in Auburn so it’s really an ideal place to prepare yourself without going crazy on having ridiculous days. We have pretty normal days although a bit later of course than what they’re used to,” Verhaeren said.

“This week we are really looking for acclimatising so we’re not looking really for performance as of yet. There were a few guys that already arrived earlier, you can actually see already that they are adjusted and they are doing test sets already. For the majority of the team that will happen next week. So this is really about settling in, making sure you get your sleep sorted, your rest time sorted, and adjusting to the competition times.”

The swimmers will train at the Auburn University Aquatics Centre which boasts both an eight lane indoor and 10 lane outdoor pool, world class gym facilities and a familiar face in former Dolphin, and Head Coach at Auburn University Swim Club – Brett Hawke.

 

At the first team meeting following an introduction from Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren and an inspirational talk from Brett Hawke, West Australian duo Blair Evans and Tamsin Cook, who were absent at the Rio Farewell Grand Prix, were officially presented with their Olympic blazers. Evans is off to her second Games after competing in London, while Tamsin will make her debut in Rio.

The team will arrive in Rio on August 1 with the official press conference scheduled for August 2 (Rio time).