WAIS Athletes Produce the Goods in Short Course Champs

WAIS athletes Blair Evans and Tommasso D’Orsogna have been included into the Australian Telstra Dolphins squad for the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, to be held in Guam next January.

Evans and D’Orsogna both recorded good results this week at the Australian Short Course Championships in Melbourne.

Evans, who is coached by Matt Magee of WAIS, won two gold medals and a bronze and set a host of personal best times during the meet. She won the 800m freestyle in a time of 8:27 and the 400m freestyle in 4:05.2, both in personal best times.

Evans also competed in the 200m freestyle on the last night of competition, setting a new personal best of 1:58.38 in winning bronze.

D’Orsogna claimed victory in the B final of the 200m freestyle in a very competitive field. Despite being ninth in the semi-finals, D’Orsogna produced a personal best in the B-Final in a time that would have secured fourth place in the A-Final.

D’Orsogna’s strong form continued on the last night of competition, claiming silver in the 100m IM and fifth position in the 100m freestyle. D’Orsogna is coached by Mel Tantrum.

WAIS swimming Program Coordinator Simon Jones believes the successful results recorded in Melbourne would go along way towards securing a bright future for the athletes competing, with the experience gained invaluable.

“Across the board there were signs of continued progression with PB’s from nearly all WAIS swimmers. This competition was a useful benchmark for the team to assess their training so far and build on their success factors,to hopefully peak at theWorld Championship trials in March next year,” he said.

Other notable results from WAIS athletes included: a third place finish for Amy Lucas in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:10 and a pair of bronze medals to Craig Tucker in the 100m and 200m breaststroke finals.