Mainstone 13th at World Championships
WAIS open water swimmer Rhys Mainstone has finished 13th in the men’s 10km event at the 2013 FINA World Championships in Barcelona.
The second day of open water competition at the Moll de la Fusta course, saw the men line up along the harbour for the highly competitive race.
After a short delay due to a false start, the race eventually got underway with the Mel Tantrum coached Rhys Mainstone gaining an early lead.
Mainstone managed to hold onto the top spot until the 6km mark when the eventual winner Spyridon Gianniotis (1:49:11.8) made a break and managed to take his lead all the way to the finish gate.
Following some rough turns Mainstone was pushed further back into the lead pack and eventually hit the gate in 13thplace with a time of 1hour 49:30.4.
Just ahead of him was his teammate and fellow West Australian Simon Huitenga, who finished 12th at his first ever World Championships in 1 hour 49:29.7.
Huitenga held his position within the lead pack throughout the duration of the race and a solid touch at the end saw him skip ahead of Mainstone by less than one second.
In other swimming news, Swan Hills swimmer and WAIS scholarship holder Holly Barratt has returned from the World University Games in Russia more determined than ever to realise her dreams in the pool.
Barratt had an impressive campaign in Kazan, where she made three finals in the 50m butterfly, 4 x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay and swam personal best times in two of her events.
The 25-year-old from Kelmscott says the experience of competing alongside world-class swimmers has inspired her to return to the pool with her mind firmly focused on next year’s Commonwealth Games and Pan Pac trials.
“I’ve made some huge gains over the last year and I’m excited to see where I’ll be this time next year,” said Barratt.
Barratt was one of 25 athletes chosen to represent Australia at the Games, which wrapped up last week.
She described the atmosphere in the Games village as “fun” and the competition in the pool “amazing” with the crowds at the Aquatics Palace.
“One of our goals was to start to contribute toa new Australian swim team culturewhere everyone is positive, supportive, and friendly no matter what their role or experience, and we definitely achieved that,” Barratt said.
“For a number of us, this was our first (national) team and we went in not knowing anyone, but we quickly made friends.
“The World University Games and Kazan was such a great experience, and I’m really glad my first team was this one.”
-SwimmingWA