SWIMMING: Australia has dominated in the pool in the morning session on day two in Nanjing, qualifying for two finals (women's 200m butterfly, women's 4x100m medley relay) and two semi-finals (women's 100m freestyle, men's 100m butterfly) later tonight.
Following last night’s bronze medal win in the mixed 4x100m freestyle, the women’s 4x100m medley team including, Amy Forrester, Ella Bond, Brianna Throssell and Ami Matsuo kicked into gear to snag another position in a relay final for Australia at the Youth Olympic Games.
“Our race plan was just to make the finals we didn’t think about anything else, we tried to swim our own race and that’s what we did and I think we did really good,” HSC student, Matsuo said.
“We just wanted an inside lane. We just had to do our best and I think tonight will be something to look forward to,” Western Australian, Throssell said.
Forrester and Bond felt the thrill of being part of a team after watching their teammates bring it home last night.
“I love being a part of a team, I think it really gets the adrenaline pumping. Swimming with the other girls gives you a bit of extra strength, it’s really good,” 16-year-old Bond said.
“I think we can hopefully do a lot better and maybe come away with a medal,” Queenslander Forrester said.
Bronze medallists Matsuo and Throssell also proved their worth in their individual events, showing the world Australia has arrived in force.
Throssell is eyeing off the podium in tonight’s finals after pushing home hard and fast to win her heat and qualify fifth overall in the women’s 200m butterfly with a time of 2:12.31, slower than she is capable of.
“It will be nice to get a PB tonight so I just kind of had to relax this morning but hopefully it will go better tonight,” the teenager said.
“The backend has always been my strength so I just have to make sure I don’t get caught with everyone going out ... so I just got to stay relaxed in the first hundred and work my strength in the back hundred.”
Matsuo swam a fast heat in the women’s 100m freestyle to win her heat and qualify third overall for the semi-finals tonight. Matsuo said her podium finish last night gave her the boost of confidence she needed.
“It made me more hungry to get up there and try and even win gold for Australia so I guess it’s kind of like a little motivational boost,” Matsuo said.
Clocking a time of 55.32, just outside her qualifying time of 54.78, Matsuo says she is confident she can improve for tonight.
“It was a pretty comfortable swim. I was a bit nervous so I think tonight I will be more relaxed and a bit more confident so I can so I can swim a bit more faster tonight.”
In the men’s events, Nic Brown powered home in the 100m butterfly to propel himself into the semi’s later on and hopefully win another medal- but he says there is still a lot of work to be done.
“Not many people can say they’ve got an Olympic bronze medal, but I am trying to calm down. It was only the first day so we still have a big job ahead of us and I am just trying to focus for the other swims,” the 18-year-old said.
Nic Groenewald put his heart and soul into his race in the men’s 200m individual medley, sticking with the leading pack for majority of the race but unfortunately just falling short of qualifying for the final.
The second session of the swimming will commence at 18:00 (20:00 AEST) at the Olympic Sports Centre Natatorium, Nanjing where the Aussie Women will be in the running for two medals.
Laura Judd
olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
