SWIMMING: Brianna Throssell has won seven bronze medals in the pool at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) after coming third in the women’s 100m butterfly on Friday night, the final night of competition in the pool.
Eighteen-year-old Throssell was over the moon with her meet performance after touching the wall in 59.12 behind gold and silver medallist Lilianna Szilagyi from Hungary and Yufei Zhang from China.
“I’m quite honoured for it to be my sixth bronze [in finals], this is probably one of the best meets I have ever had, it is just so much fun,” the West Australian said.
“That was my last swim and to finish with a bronze I am so happy.”
While the bronze queen looks like she has a bright future, Throssell says she is just focussing on getting back into training.
“There is still so much to learn. When you look at both Liliana (Russia) and the Chinese girl, they were absolutely amazing and hopefully one day I can improve a bit myself and become like them. They just had such awesome swims tonight,” Throssell said.
“I think I have got to get back in the pool and have a hard training. I haven’t had a full session in a while, because we have been tapering and racing, but I guess looking forward to Rio that is my aim, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on me to qualify. I will just do my best.”
Medalling in the 100m and 200m butterfly, the 200m freestyle and the girl’s 4x100m freestyle and medley relays as well as being a heat swimmer in the 4x100m mixed medley, Throssell has contributed to seven of Australia’s 14 medals at the YOG so far.
At the meet, the Australian Youth Olympic Team swimmers also medalled in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, the boys 100m butterfly, the boy's 4x100m medley relay, the girl’s 50m freestyle and the mixed 4x100m medley relay. For all Australian medallist's click here.
In another win for team Australia on Friday night, Ami Matsuo, 18, came second in the women’s 50m freestyle breaking the swim team’s bronze run and winning Australia’s first silver medal of the Games.
Clocking a time of 25.21, Matsuo won her first individual medal and fifth of the meet.
“I’m so happy, I’m so proud of myself,” the Sydneysider said.
“The 200 and 100 [freestyle], they were my main races and not being able to get a medal I was a bit disappointed so I thought why not just put 110% on this 50 freestyle and see what I can do and coming home with a silver medal I just can’t be happier.”
Matsuo was surrounded by Russia who added another gold and silver to their tally at the pool. There were more medals to come for Matsuo, joining Amy Forrester, Grayson Bell and Nic Brown to win bronze in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, behind China and Russia on the final event of the night to cap off a successful meet.
“I’m pretty tired actually, but I am really happy. It is a really good way to finish off a meet,” Queenslander Forrester said.
“Winning another bronze medal for Australia is such a great feeling. I think we did our country proud and we just swam really well,” Matsuo added.
Currently, Australia is the world record holder of the 4x100m mixed medley relay, 3:46.52 (Ashley Delaney, Daniel Tranter, Alicia Coutts, Emma McKeon ) and 4x100m freestyle relay, 3:23.29 (Tommaso D'Orsogna, Cate Campbell, James Magnussen, Bronte Campbell ) both set at the 2014 Aquatic Super Series, which is something the AYOT swimmers can only aspire to.
“This stadium, this whole meet, the crowd here has been truly spectacular and to be able to swim for Australia at this level for me is truly something I will remember for a long time and something I will always be proud of,” West Australian Brown said.
“So it is a good stepping stone onto future meets and I am excited for the future.”
In other events Nic Groenewald, 17, failed to make the podium in the boys 200m backstroke, however he smashed his PB in a time of 2:01.18.
“To be able to not execute the plan I wanted and still PB that’s a really good thing,” the Queenslander said.
Australian Olympic coach Tracey Menzies and assistant coach Dean Boxall say they are extremely impressed with the level of maturity the AYOT swimmers showed throughout the meet as well as their stellar performances in the pool.
“I’m just really pleased and happy with how they have conducted themselves. They’ve been extremely professional in the way that they have handled themselves in the village and also here within the meet,” Menzies said.
“We’ve got a small team but a very cohesive team so I think that was probably the thing that Dean and myself wanted to really work on was making sure that we had a team that was one team so I think we’ve done that and done that really well and that has showed through in their results.”
Laura Judd
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
