Triple Treat for Barratt
Holly Barratt collected three medals in a stellar campaign for the Dolphins at the FINA World Short Course Championships in China.
The Rockingham swim club member earned podium finishes in the 50m fly and 50m back finals, whilst also leading-off the Australian women’s 4x50m freestyle relay team to a bronze medal.
50m Butterfly
Barratt claimed a silver medal in the final of the 50m fly, finishing behind the highly accomplished Dutchwoman Ranomi Kromowidjojo.
Kromowidjojo set a new Championship record of 24.47 with Barratt reaching the wall second in 24.80 which further improved her personal best from the morning’s heat swim.
Barratt said she was pleased to earn a first career individual medal at world championship level.
“I’m really happy with the result. Firstly, my swims in the heat and the semi, and then swimming the 50 fly in some relays as well, so I think all these races have fixed little things and it all came together in this one.
“This is my first individual world level medal which is really exciting, and I am about half way through my program here, so this is good going forward,” she added.
50m Back
Barratt continued that impressive form to improve upon a seventh seed ranking for the final of the 50m backstroke where she managed to jump four positions and earn a bronze medal with a third place finish.
She stopped the clock at 26.04 to narrowly edge out China’s Yuanhui Fu by just two-hundredths of a second.
Impressively, she was only .16 of a second off world champion Olivia Smoliga of the USA – who won gold in 25.88.
Barratt admitted surprise at the result but was happy to take another medal.
“I am very happy with that race. It was right after my freestyle semi-final and all I was focusing on was holding together a good race when I was going to be a bit tired.
“I wasn’t thinking about medals beforehand, I just wanted to execute the race well and do the skills the way I wanted, and I did, so I am very happy,” she added.
4x50m Freestyle Relay
Leading off the relay team, Barratt earned a third medal in the 4x50m freestyle as the Australians finished on the podium. Barratt swam a 24.04 to hand over to Emily Seebohm, with Minna Atherton and Carla Buchanan finishing the job.
Australia’s time of 1:36.34 ranked below USA (1:34.03) and the Netherlands (1:34.55).
Speaking on behalf of the group, Seebohm said: “It’s always fun. I just really try to enjoy it because you don’t get many opportunities to race with these girls and race against the best in the world.”
Barratt was also a member of the Australian 4x50m medley relay which finished fifth, whilst Barratt achieved the same result in the final of the 100m free in another strong performance.
Nicholas Brown swam in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, where the Australian’s finished eighth, only marginally short of the national record.