Nederpelt Qualifies For Beijing
WAIS medley swimmer Travis Nederpelt has booked himself a spot in the Beijing Games with a personal best swim in the 400m Individual Medley at the Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney.
Nederpelt will travel to his second games after clocking a time of 4:16.31m to finish ahead of fellow West Australian and WAIS swimmer, Adam Lucas.
Nederpelt, who has re-located to Melbourne to train with Ian Pope, led through the butterfly discipline before being pegged back in the backstroke, but he was able to cut it into a race between two in the breaststroke, before pulling away for a comfortable win in the final freestyle leg.
Nederpelt was understandably overcome by the enormity of his win and subsequent qualification in the Australian swim team.
“It’s quite a stressful time when you’re trying to get on the team and now, what a relief,” Nederpelt said.
“I’ve got some more events as well and hopefully I can just be really calm and get the most out of myself.”
Lucas missed out on Olympic selection after posting a time outside of the A-Qualifying time but will hunt another opportunity in the 200m Individual Medley.
Jim Piper narrowly missed out on a spot after he finished third in the 100m Breaststroke final. Piper swam a time of 1:00.22m but finished behind the Queensland pair of Brenton Rickard and Christian Sprenger, Rickard set a new Australian record with a time of 1:00.04m.
Piper will attempt to qualify through the 200m Breaststroke with the same opponents likely to cause the biggest stumbling block.
Jen Reilly was unable to meet the pace of new World Record holder Stephanie Rice in the 400m Individual Medley. Rice shocked the world with a slick swim of 4:31.46m with Reilly further back in fourth.
Katrina Porter has given her Paralympics hopes a huge shot in the arm after she recorded the fastest time in her disability class in the multi-disability 100m Backstroke final. Porter posted a time of 1:26.40m with places calculated on the swimmer’s time in relation to the percentage of the World Record in their respective classification.
Eamon Sullivan has begun his Championships in fine style with a fast swim in the opening heat for the 100m Freestyle. Sullivan clocked 48.94s and was the only swimmer to swim sub 49s in the heat stage.
Sullivan who saw his 50m World Record broken by Frenchman Alain Bernard this week felt pleased with his first venture into the pool at this meet.
“I just wanted to get out there and just practice all my skills and get a solid time on the board and obviously make sure I’m in the semi-finals,” said Sullivan.
“I’ve been dying to get out there and have a swim, I’ve been watching all my friends swim amazing times and get on the team.
“It’s pretty hard to sit back and watch and just try to pace yourself so this morning I was probably pretty nervous just getting out there and making sureI swam well.”
Sullivan provided an insight into what he was hoping to achieve in the finals.
“I’ll definitely look to be getting under 48 in the final that’s the goal,” said Sullivan, “If I can get in to the 47’s I’ll be very happy.
“I wouldn’t mind having a go tonight (in the semi-final) and seeing where I’m at but at the same time I want to make sure tomorrow night’s my fastest one.
“At the end of the day it’s just getting on the team that’s the most important thing, world records come and go but Olympic gold obviously lasts forever.”
The Men’s 100m Freestyle final is to be raced on Wednesday evening, and Sullivan will also get the chance to re-claim his 50m World Record later in the week.