SWIMMING: Australia has won another two bronze medals in the pool after Brianna Throssell finished third in the women’s 200m freestyle and Kyle Chalmers, Nic Brown, Nic Groenewald and Grayson Bell finished third in the men’s 4x100m medley relay tonight.
The two bronze medals form part of Australia’s six bronze in the pool and eight medals overall at the Youth Olympic Games so far.
For Throssell the bronze tonight was her fourth in just four days.
“Apparently bronze is my favourite colour at the moment, it would be nice to get a different colour at some point but I’m happy with bronze,” the 18-year-old said.
“I feel excited, I’ve kind of never really performed like this at an international meet before so I’m over the moon at how it’s gone so far.”
After just missing out on a medal in the women’s 50m butterfly earlier in the night, touching the wall just 0.02 seconds behind to bronze medallist Nastja Govejsek from Slovenia, Throssell says she put the disappointment behind her and just gave it her all in the 200.
“To be honest I was a little bit disappointed but I just had to kind of put that aside and just refocus myself in the 200 free and I gave it all I had and came away with a bronze and a PB so I couldn’t be happier,” the Western Australian said.
The win was bittersweet for Australia with Ami Matsuo finishing in fifth just over a second behind her fellow teammate and friend Throssell.
China’s Duo Shen and Yuhan Qiu took home gold and silver in 1:56 seconds.
The 200m freestyle was Matsuo’s main event but unfortunately the Sydneysider could not keep up with the pack, finishing in fifth just over a second behind Throssell.
“To be honest I think I could have done a lot better but you know results are results and I can’t do anything about it now,” the 18-year-old said.
“I was really nervous for it, it’s my main race but I did what I can do and it’s not the best results but you can’t always expect to swim the best you can so it’s alright.”
Despite Matsuo’s nerves, Throssell says Matsuo was so supportive to her before the race, showing just how bonded the Youth Australian swim team really are.
“Ami and I are really good friends and we don’t try to look at each other as opponents, we are there to encourage each other and help each other,” Throssell said.
“She was so sweet to me after my 50 fly when I was a bit disappointed but she was there, she got me up, she is just a good friend to have.”
In the men’s 4x100m medley event, the Aussie’s kept a steady pace, coming in fourth at every split before Chalmers,16, powered home in freestyle clocking a time of 49.09 to come third and secure Australia another medal.
The medal is another feather in Brown’s cap, a third for the games, a second for Chalmers and Groenewald and a first for Bell.
Heading into the race the boys aimed to strip five seconds from the heat swim, but they did one better clocking a time of 3:40.68, eight seconds quicker than this morning.
“The race was awesome, I think we all did really well, we all swam on PB’s and if not we broke PB’s which is good, so yeah it was a great race and I don’t think it could have gone any better,” South Australian Chalmers said.
Despite beaming with medals around their necks, the boys agreed the race proved just how fast the competition is with Russia taking out the gold, two seconds in front of the competition and Germany not too far behind.
“This competition has been one of the toughest I have ever swum against, the amount of talent that is in this pool is unbelievable and just being part of this meet is an amazing experience,” Brown said.
The attention surrounding the Australian team is electric, with media requesting interviews left right and centre and the home crowd cheering them on and jumping in photos with them.
“It’s pretty good, it’s enjoyable to be able to just to sort of just have a conversation after our race, it sort of helps us relax and calm down a bit if we have had a really good swim and sort of gets us back to being a little bit more normal if we have had a pretty poor swim so that is always a good thing to help us have to speed up that process,” Victorian Groenewald said.
“I’m loving it, this is nearly an Olympic event so all the media attention is great, I’m loving it,” Queenslander Bell added.
In other events, Chalmers just missed out on making it to the final of the men’s 50m butterfly, finishing ninth and just 0.1 seconds behind the eighth qualifier.
Despite the disappointment, he says he is enjoying every moment of the Games good and bad.
“It’s a bit disappointing coming over here and not swimming your best but you know I guess you can’t really change what’s happened and I’ve got tomorrow to redeem myself in the 100 freestyle which hopefully I can do,” he said.
“Overall it’s awesome, I think the village is awesome the competition is awesome I think it’s just amazing being part of this competition with all the best swimmers in the world it’s just insane how quickly they are going and just especially being a part of this Australian team is awesome , it’s all just really nice and good to be a part of.”
The Aussie’s have two more days in the pool in Nanjing, with the competition resuming tomorrow morning at 1000 (1200 AEST) at the Olympic Sports Centre Natatorium.
You can watch all the action on the IOC’s YouTube channel or at Olympics.org.
Laura Judd
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
