WAIS Swimmers Revel in Medals in Guam

WAIS swimmers have returned an impressive haul of medals from the 2009 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships at the Leo Palace Resort Aquatic Centre in Guam.

AIS – WAIS swimmer Tomasso D’Orsogna came away with six medals which included three gold, whilst Blair Evans and Rhys Mainstone also featured on the dais.

D’Orsogna moved to Canberra to train at the AIS at the start of the year and the former Mel Tantrum trained sprint swimmer had the meet of his life featuring in individual and relay finals.

D’Orsogna claimed his first medal with a fine swim in the 50m freestyle, claiming silver in 22.96sec behind Japan’s Kenta Ito (22.90sec) with New Zealand’s Daniel Bell taking bronze (23.00sec).

Gold followed in the final of the men’s 100m freestyle with D’Orsogna (49.75sec) edging out fellow Australian Daniel Smith (49.99sec) whilst Bell (50.59sec) again took bronze.

D’Orsogna made it a trio of sprint medals by claiming silver in the 200m freestyle after being defeated by a fraction when he touched in 1:49.57min, edged out by Canada’s Hassaan Abdel-Khalik (1:49.55min).

Considering D’Orosgna’s blistering form in the individual events it came as no surprise when Australia claimed gold in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays and took silver behind New Zealand in the 4 x 100m medley relay.

D’Orsogna and his teammates set new meet records in both the freestyle relays.

WAIS swimmer Blair Evans showed her future potential in the sport, recording a fine swim in the women’s 800m freestyle winning bronze in a time of 8:46.28min behind the US pair of Haley Anderson (8:38.54min) and Amber McDermott (8:39.13min).

WAIS open water swimmer Rhys Mainstone continued his great form winning silver in the 10km openwater event in turbulent water conditions.

Used to the rough and tumble of the Rottnest Island open water classic, the Matt McGee coached Mainstone used all his experience in the testing waters.

He swam the best line through out the entire race and when it came down to the sprint finish he was able to position himself perfectly in the frantic last 100 metres.

He was only just out-touched by Ryan Feeley (USA), who recovered after swimming around a moored surf ski with 250m to go.

“Those conditions really suited me – in fact I’m used to much worse than that at home,” said Mainstone.

“It’s rewarding to win the silver and makes you want to continue all the hard work.”