Courtesy: Swimming Australia
The opening night of finals at the Australian Age Championships at Brisbane Aquatic Centre featured Dolphins Callum Simpson (pictured) and Holly Warn back in the water at the same venue that saw them punch their ticket to last year’s Paris Paralympics.
Warn (S8), the youngest swimmer selected for Paris, swum 5min:23.48secs in the 16-18 years 400m multi-class freestyle to win silver behind winner Grace Brimelow (S9) with Emilee Pratt (S9) claiming the bronze.
For Warn it was a case of new season, new goals, new PB.
“It’s pretty cool to be back … and that was a PB! I’ve got a lot of good memories here at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre but getting picked for the Paris Paralympic team is definitely the best of them,” Warn said.
“This time round I’m just hoping to get some good times down and crack some PBs. Earlier this year I was moved up a class, so it will be a challenge, and I’ll have to dig deep but these Championships are a good opportunity to practice and build.
“Because of my reclassification to S8, I’m switching my focus to backstroke, particularly the 100m backstroke event… I’m definitely looking forward to LA, it’s on my mind every day.”
Warn, who was being stopped for selfies, then added: “I’m pumped to finally have a legacy built here (with the National Aquatics Centre announced as an Olympic venue). I feel like we are finally getting somewhere and it’s really exciting for para swimming.”
Less than half an hour later, Simpson (S8) claimed the men’s 400m multi-class freestyle in what was a one second PB – stopping the clock at 4:33.50. But it’s the 100m free, the same event he won gold in Paris, he is really looking forward to which will feature on Day 2 of the program.
In all, 188 multi-class athletes are swimming at this meet aged 12 to 18 years.
But it was Albury Swim Club’s rising teen star Mia Hogan (S13) who took home the biggest haul of the opening night – gold in the 50m back and 100 breaststroke; and silver in the 200m free in the 12-13 years age group.
The improvement of Hogan – who is visually impaired and trains under Wayne Gould – has her flagged for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, LA 2028 Paralympics and beyond.
In other events:
>Beau Matthews (S10) shaved three seconds off his PB to claim silver (4:20.51) behind Simpson’s gold in the boys 16-18 400m freestyle multi-class. Daniel Rigby (S9), a fellow National Flippers Squad Member, claimed bronze in his first of seven events for the meet (4:42.43).
>PLC Sydney’s Stephanie Bruzzese (S14) has made significant strides domestically as shown by tonight’s gold in the girls 16-18 200m freestyle multi-class (2:18.04). Kael Thompson, coached by Harley Connolly and Casey Atkins at USC Spartans, placed second in the event (2:18.83) less than half an hour after she picked up a gold in the 50m backstroke (34.03).
>In the boys 16-18 200m freestyle multi-class, S14 swimmer Declan Budd dominated (1:57.62), followed by Albany Creek clubmates Tobi Rinaldi and Michael Whitby – both S15 classification – who placed second (2:04.41) and third (2:14.02) respectively.
Day 2 heats start at 9am and live results can be found: https://liveresults.swimming.org.au/sal/2025Age/
