Kate Brookes-Peterson has produced the swim of her life to win Australia’s first medal of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships – bronze in the women’s 5km open water event at St Kilda Beach. 

Brookes-Peterson, who led for most of the race, was over taken on the last of four 1.25km laps by defending champion, eventual winner Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko and her team-mate Ekaterina Seliverstova.

It gave Russia a dream start – gold and silver in the first event – but what a break through for Brookes-Peterson to snatch the bronze.

Her Telstra Dolphins Australian team-mate, Townsville rookie Alexandra Bagley was 18th – just 11 seconds behind Brookes-Peterson, in an encouraging debut.

In the men’s race, 19-year-old rookie Queenslander David Browne also swam the race of his life in tough competition to finish seventh with former Ironman star and the silver medallist in this race in 1998, Ky Hurst a close up three-way tie for 10th with Germany’s Christian Hein and Hungary’s Csaba Gercsak.

The men’s race saw defending champion Thomas Lurz (Germany) set a cracking pace from go-to-whoa to take the gold from Russia’s Evgeny Drattsev with Greek Olympic 1500m finalist from Athens, Spyridon Gianniotis, taking the bronze.

Browne came with a blistering finish and only inexperience cost him a much higher placing, while Hurst said he was disappointed with his finish but left the beach determined to return on Wednesday to improve his performance over the Olympic distance 10km event.

But for Australia it was Brookes-Peterson, the 23-year-old from Redcliffe who was the toast of St Kilda and a parochial home crowd.

She had to dig deeper than she has ever dug to swim her way out of a pack of six swimmers to take a well deserved bronze medal – her first in major international competition.

She showed she had what it took to mix it with the toughest swimmers in the world as open water swimming heads towards its Olympic debut in Beijing.

Brookes-Peterson went stroke-for-stroke with the likes of Germany’s veteran Britta Kamrau-Corestein, Jan Pechanova (Czech Republic), Poliana Okimoto (Brazil) and Alessia Paoloni (Italy) and came out on top.

The bronze was anyone’s after the pack scrambled around the final turning buoys for the sprint to the finish, parallel to the St Kilda Beach pier.

With hundreds of fans and team-mates jostling for the best vantage points, screaming their support, the swimmers were doing likewise as they lifted their rating in the race to the finish.

It was like a pack of piranhas – a wash of legs and arms everywhere as the battle lines were drawn in the race for bronze.

“The final dash to the line was a complete blur, I don’t remember what happened. All I know is I had to kick as hard as I could and swing my arms faster than I have ever swung to get to the line,” said Brookes-Peterson.

“I even had my head down when I lunged at the touch pad and I had no idea where I was or where I finished.

“I just knew I had to go as hard as I could and that’s just what I did.

“To win a medal for Australia is just a dream come true – I have waited a long time for this and I’m just so happy to repay Swimming Australia and Australia for the opportunity they have given me.”

Brookes-Peterson moved to the Gold Coast from New Zealand seven years ago and made her World Championship debut in the green and gold in Montreal in 2005, after previously racing for New Zealand.

Australian National Open Water head coach Greg Towle was delighted with the result for Brookes-Peterson and satisfied with the Dolphins’ overall performances.

“Kate did a great job. If anyone deserves a medal it is her. She has worked hard and has matured into an outstanding young swimmer who can certainly go all the way,” said Towle.

“Alex (Bagley) will certainly be better for the experience and she will be suited to the 10km while I was pleasantly surprised with David Browne who actually could have been a lot closer than seventh.

“I know Ky (Hurst) is disappointed – he has had a great preparation but there is no disgrace in a top 10 finish in this field – it is red hot.”

Ian Hanson
Swimming Australia