Bronze Medals for WAIS Swimming Stars
WAIS swimmers have secured bronze medals on different corners of the planet this week, with Kris Taylor medalling at the World University Games in China, whilst Brianna Throssell earned success at the World Junior Championships in Peru.
Shenzhen, China is playing host to Universiade, claimed as the second biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympic Games, and with the Swimming World Championships recently finished, many of the world’s best swimmers have been taking the opportunity to compete in the relaxed and youth focused festival.
Taylor and his Australian 4x200m freestyle relay teammates produced a strong swim to finish third in the final recently, behind USA and Japan.
The team, consisting of David McKeon, Mitchell Dixon, Nick Ffrost and Taylor clocked a time of 7:17.58 for bronze, with Taylor delighted to be part of a medal winning Australian team.
“We won bronze in the 4x200m Freestyle and ended up fifth in the 4x100m. I am really excited about these results and I can’t wait for my final event, the 50 Freestyle on Friday,” Taylor said.
“I got a lot out the two events. Since this is my first competition at this level it has been good getting some experience and confidence out of the swims.”
It was also important to see how the others swimmers, particularly those who have been to Olympics and World Championships before, handle themselves in this environment. It will certainly benefit me in trying to achieve my goal to make next year’s team heading to London,” Taylor wrote in his blog for the WAIS website.
Emerging WAIS swimming talent Brianna Throssell started a hectic seven swim program at the Junior World Swimming Championships in Lima, Peru with a bronze medal as part of the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Throssell swam first change and posted a strong 2:02min split that put the team well in contention for a tilt at the medals. Australia was able to hang on for bronze and Throssell shared her feat with team members Bonnie Macdonald, Taylor McKeown and Mikkayla Sheridan. USA won gold ahead of Canada in second.