Throssell Officially Selected for FINA World Championships

Brianna Throssell has earned official selection for the Australian Dolphins team and will compete at the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, Korea.

Throssell was in brilliant form throughout the Australian Selection Trials in Brisbane last week, taking victory in the women’s 200m fly and second place in the 100m fly to earn individual swims in both events.

Further to that, Throssell was also fourth in the women’s 200m free final and was sixth in the 100m free finale, meaning she will also be eligible as a relay swimmer at next month’s championships.

Australia will send a squad of 27 swimmers which is down on recent major competition selections, however head coach Jacco Verhaeren said this approach was formed with a view to targeting peak performance.

“We have very strong qualification standards which is based on the top eight times in previous world championships, so this is a smaller team than perhaps previous worlds, but a very strong team I believe,” he said.

“There have been some fantastic individual performances and the depth in some of our relay teams is very promising.

“Qualifying here is just the first step, we now have to convert and capitalise on these performances in South Korea, so our efforts in the coming five weeks will be focussed on that.”

With the FINA World Championships also taking in Water Polo, Diving, High Diving, Synchronised Swimming and Open Water Swimming from July 12-28, the action from the pool in Gwangju will commence on July 21.

Since World Championships first began being contested in 1973, Australia has won the third most gold medals of any nation with 74, behind only USA (208) and Germany (78).

42 gold medals will be on offer for swimmers, with 20 each for men’s and women’s events, with a further two available via the mixed 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays.