WA Swimmers Earn National Representative Selection

The future of swimming in Western Australia is looking bright following the announcement more than a dozen swimmers from the State will represent their country over the coming months.

WA will have 16 athletes don the green and gold this year, including five swimmers who will compete at next month’s Oceania Championships in New Zealand.

City Beach swimmer Brianna Throssell, Sacha Downing (Woodlands), Nicholas Brown (Bedford) and WAIS duo Tamsin Cook (Carine) and Damian Fyfe (Stirling) have all been selected on the team for the championships, which take place in Auckland from 16th to 23rd May. WA coach Dion Mepham will also travel with the squad to New Zealand.

WA will also make up a quarter of the Australian team for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China from 16th to 28th August, with Throssell and Brown joining the eight-strong squad.

Meanwhile Fyfe, Cook and Downing, along with Western Australian Institute of Sport coach Michael Palfrey, will travel to Hawaii for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, which take place from 28th August to 1st September. Grace Hull, of Edgewater, and Brett Fielding (Mount Lawley) will also compete in Hawaii in the open water program.

Other West Australian swimmers attracting the attention of national selectors include WAIS duo Yolane Kukla, of Marmion, and Rockingham’s Holly Barratt, who have been named on the Australia A team after strong performances at the 2014 Australian Championships in Brisbane earlier this month.

Kukla and Barratt, along with Rockingham coach Will Scott will travel with the rest of the team to the USA for the LA Invitational Meet from 17th to 20th July.

-SwimmingWA