Bremer Wins Breaststroke Silver at Nationals

WAIS swimmer Lennard Bremer has won a silver medal in the men’s 200m breaststroke final at the 2015 Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney.

Bremer bettered his semi final swim by nearly half a second to touch the wall in 2:13.63 to edge out Joshua Tierney (2:13.66) by a finger nail.

The Australian title was won by Nicholas Schafer who stopped the clock at 2:12.47, a body length ahead of Westside club member Bremer.

The remarkable efforts of WAIS athlete Katherine Downie continued on Thursday morning, with the plucky Westside swimmer qualifying for Thursday night’s final in the women’s 200m Individual Medley MC.

Downie made the start line at SOPAC despite only recently overcoming a bout of appendicitis that required surgery to remove her appendix.

The Paralympian missed crucial training and preparation time ahead of nationals, but showed her racing nous to record a time of 2:41.34 that saw her safely through to the final where she will be in the hunt for a medal.

Also in finals action on Thursday night, is West Coast swimmer and WAIS athlete Tamsin Cook, who at 16 is taking on the women’s 800m freestyle field in what should be an interesting final.

Cook touched home in 8:43.71 in qualifying, with reports suggesting she has the race pace to push the 8min30 barrier. Regardless of the result, Cook – with Age Nationals to follow – has performed exceptionally well.

Trinity club member Nicholas Brown is the other WAIS scholarship holder in action tonight, with the 19 year-old swimming in the men’s 100m fly final, with Jayden Hadler, Tommaso D’Orsogna and Grant Irvine all highly rated.

Brown was the sixth fastest qualifier and will look to break 53secs in his final appearance, after a 53.01 in the semi finals stage.