Ashton Brinkworth wins 50m freestyle at Hancock Prospecting Virtual Short Course

Six WAIS swimmers claimed podium finished at the Hancock Prospecting Virtual Short Course meet with freestyle ace Ashton Brinkworth taking top honours in the 50m freestyle. Individual top three finishes also went to Evans, Incerti, Brown, Barratt and Throssell.

The four session competition across Friday and Saturday at HBF Stadium, was held as a replacement for the 2020 Short Course National Championships. Swimming in their home states Australia’s best took on the virtual competition, with swimmers competing in their home states with the times then ranked to determine the standings.

20-year-old Brinkworth’s time of 21.30 beat out Matthew Temple and Cameron McEvoy by less than a tenth of the second to give him bragging rights across the nation.

Dual Olympian Blair Evans claimed third in her pet event the 400 individual medley, Nic Brown’s return to the pool saw him finish third in the 100 and 200 metre butterfly.

Brianna Throssell continued to shine as one of Australia’s leading stars in the butterfly with three individual podium finishes across the 50, 100 and 200m distances.

Commonwealth Games medallists Zac Incerti and Holly Barratt both found the podium with Incerti third in the 100m backstroke and Barratt second in the 100m butterfly.

Para events saw three-time world championship medallist Ben Popham set new PB’s as did new scholarship holder Tegan Reder.

In relay events Incerti, Milligan and Throssell were part of the third place UWA West Coast team in the 4×50 mixed medley relay. In The men’s 4x50m freestyle relay Brinkworth, Milligan and Incerti took third and Incerti, Milligan and Brinkworth combined in the 4x50m medley relay.