2016 HANCOCK PROSPECTING AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Thursday April 7th-Thursday April 14th
- SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre – Adelaide
- Prelims – 11 am local (9:30 pm EDT previous evening); Finals – 7:45 pm local (6:15 am EDT)
- Australian Olympic Qualifying Criteria
- Psych Sheets
- Program of Events
- Live stream
- Live results
We’ve reached the halfway point of the 2016 Australian National Championships, which are also serving as the nation’s Olympic Trials, and it’s time to take a look back at some of the quotes from Australia’s top athletes.
All quotes are courtesy of Swimming Australia’s press releases.
Freestyler Mack Horton On Rebounding From Kazan:
“I’m happy with that, and happy to be on the team, but I still want to go faster,” said Horton, who was diagnosed with a microscopic parasite bug after returning from the World Championships last year.
“To be in medal contention last year and for it to all go wrong – it is great to be back in medal contention and prove that I can be there. I am really looking forward to it.”
Comeback IMer Blair Evans After Winning Women’s 400 IM:
“It’s been a really hard-fought three or four years for me,” Evans said.
“We were aiming for this sort of time for trials but there has been a few hits and misses in training the last few weeks with injuries. But to be able to come out and have such an enormous swim and a lifetime PB for me. I am so extremely happy.”
Paralympian Ellie Cole After Breaking S9 world record in 50 free:
“For the 50m freestyle – leg amputees aren’t very good at it,” Cole said.
“Natalie du Toit held the record before and to follow in her footsteps has been a dream of mine since I was a really little girl. I am absolutely speechless with that time.
“I’ve been on the Australian swim team for 10 years now and performances like that just really remind you of what it is all about. No matter how long you swim for or are an elite athlete for there are still surprises like that so I am really happy with that swim.”
Grant Hackett After His Final Career Swim in the 200 free:
“The 400 yesterday really took it out of me,” Hackett said. “I felt great in the heat but then it was just a quick spiral down because I just didn’t have the fitness to just keep bouncing back. But that’s just the way it is. Would I change it? Probably not. I love racing the 400 and I think I would have regretted it if I hadn’t raced it.”
“I don’t feel sad about what I have done and what I have achieved in the sport. To make that team would have been absolutely huge and it wasn’t to be, but I can get back to my normal life now!”
17-year-old Tamsin Cook After Qualifying for Olympic 400 Free:
“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I was very nervous but I just told myself that when I get out there I have to be fearless and race to my race plan. And I think that’s what I did and I am just so happy to have gone under that qualifying time.
“There is such a wealth of experience and hopefully I’ll be able to gain a lot and learn a lot from the older guys on the team over the next few weeks or months.”
Jake Packard on Rapid Rise After Winning 100 Breast Title:
“I’m pretty speechless,” said Packard who swims under Chris Mooney at USC Spartans on the Sunshine Coast.
“Four years ago at the same pool I didn’t even make a semi-final – to come back and try and keep myself composed is really the main thing and to fulfil that dream I have always wanted to do – I’m pretty happy.”
Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Cameron McEvoy After Tying For 200 Free title:
Fraser-Holmes: “I think we’d both agree we spent our pennies in the first three laps and I was hurting really bad that last 25 metres,” said Fraser-Holmes, the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion.
“It was a great race and it was great to be in that environment and that chaos so to speak again. I’m just so happy I re-qualified for the 200 again.
“It’s been a burning desire the last 12 months and almost every day I have been thinking about this race.
“I’ve got a great ability to focus when I don’t want to lose and I think I showed that tonight and although the time wasn’t super-fast tonight was just all about racing and getting a hand on the wall top two and we did that tonight!”
McEvoy: “Firstly, I’m really happy with that time, I haven’t been down to the mid 1:45 range for a while now so that’s really good and to do that with the hype of this competition is also very good as well,” said McEvoy.
“Who would have thought that we would have tied over 200 metres! But both our heats and semi-finals were virtually the same, give or take 0.1 or 0.2, so we’re basically inseparable really and that’s a great thing for our relay team!
“It’s the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which is the theory of gravity. And coincidentally physicists at Advanced LIGO discovered gravitational waves, which is the stretching and contraction of space-time itself…
“That pulse on my cap is the actual detection signal that they detected when two super massive black holes collided and made space-time ripple.
“(Even though) I doubt my finish was strong enough to pretty much make ripples in the fabric of space-time.”
Backstrokers Emily Seebohm and Madison Wilson on Australian Backstroking Depth:
Seebohm: “I am happy – I went faster from heats to semis to final – I did a tough job,” said Seebohm, who swam 58.73 to take the win.
“It was never going to be easy to make this team and it definitely wasn’t easy tonight but I guess I can show that my experience helps a lot.
“I was definitely nervous. I feel like it should get easier every time you come here but I swear I get more nervous every year. It was so nerve-wracking going into that. Being my 10th time around it is hard to keep improving at Australian Champs.”
Wilson: “That was exciting,” Wilson said.
“I still haven’t got my head around the fact that I am going to go to the Olympics.
“That race was always going to be tough. We have such good depth, I think we had five under the minute, which is huge.
“I don’t even think the US can do that. It is really exciting for backstroke in Australia.”
Mitch Larkin on his plans between now and Rio:
“My first goal was to come here and qualify for Rio so I’ve done that,” Larkin said.
“Kazan was in August so we’ve got a few months of work in there [until Rio] so I’ll go home and do some work and look forward to swimming faster. When you freshen up and shave down you do want to swim PBs but like I said the main goal was to come here and book my ticket to Rio so we’ll see what can happen from there.
“If I can race as much as I can, internationally, then I would love to do that for sure. There are two types of fitness – training fitness and racing fitness. I’ll look to try and probably race a few meets between here and Rio and work on that.”
Monique Murphy After 400 free multiclass title:
“This is my favourite and my main event,” Murphy said of the 400m. “After my accident I never thought I would be able to be here and not so quickly. I just want to keep chipping away at that time. I have a lot more to give and I am still new so I just want to see what I can put out there.”
Emma McKeon after Australian record 200 free:
“I’m very thrilled and sort of relieved as well because I really wanted to get a 1:54 done before leading in the rest of the year,” McKeon said.
“A lot of girls in other countries are doing 1:54 so it gives me a lot of confidence that I have done that this early.
“The job of this meet is to make the team and I was lucky to do that on the second night and once that job was out of the way then the job was to get a good time out of myself for the 200 free, which I am happy I did tonight.”
Cameron McEvoy on a 48.0 after a poor warmup:
“The warm-up is probably the worst I have felt all week so to come out and go 48 is exciting – it doesn’t happen often,” said McEvoy.
“That time would have got third at Worlds. So it’s good that I can do a time like that while feeling like this because it shows that I can step up and comfortably make that Olympic final from the semi,” said McEvoy.
Matt Abood after breakout swim in 100 free semifinals:
“I thought I had something like that in the bag,” Abood said. “I’m pretty happy with it but that’s that and we still have tomorrow night to go.
“It will be another big race and I’m happy I’ll be a part of it. It will be a big occasion, I’ll be in the middle lanes and I am sure it will be an interesting race. There will probably be a few guys going out like scalded cats and other guys coming home just the same.”
Full press releases here:
