T E C H N I CA L
SWIMMING The WAIS Swimming Program enjoyed a stellar 201516 year, earning three awards at the 2015 WAIS Annual Dinner, with athletes earning junior world championships wins, national titles and Olympic selection. Blair Evans qualified for a second Olympic Games campaign after winning a national title in the women’s 400m individual medley at the 2016 Australian Swimming Championships. Evans’ selection remarkably, is her first Australian senior team representation since she came home from London with a silver medal on Olympic debut. Evans was joined on the Australian Swimming Team for Rio by emerging talent Tamsin Cook, who qualified for Brazil by finishing second in the women’s 400m freestyle. Cook also finished inside the top six of the women’s 200m free, boosting her chances of competing in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team. IASP swimming athlete Brianna Throssell also earned Olympic selection, finishing second in the 200m butterfly. Rio will be Throssell’s Olympic debut. Cook earned herself title of WAIS Junior Athlete of the Year for 2015, after winning two Junior World Championship titles in Singapore. Cook won the women’s 400m free, before anchoring the 4x200m freestyle team to gold, whilst she also collected silver, after finishing second in the women’s 200m fly. Damian Fyfe won a silver medal in the men’s 4x200m freestyle in Singapore, with coach Michael Palfery - who coaches both Fyfe and Cook - awarded Coach of the Year at the WAIS Annual Dinner for his role in preparing the talented duo for international success. Palfery oversees the Challenge Podium Performance Centre, and this program earned Program of the Year honours for its impressive output over 2014-15.
At the 2016 Oceania Championships - Zac Incerti and Hadley Lindsay both returned medal winning performances for Australia. The WAIS Swimming Program was also active in program innovations and research across 2015-16, with monthly benchmark testing in physiology, helping identify performance benchmarks for emerging athletes. Dr Amar El-Sallam is undertaking research into marker-less technology and fluid dynamics, which is hoped to improve training and competition practises. Members of the WAIS Swimming Program have also been active participants in, altitude and heat studies, with both areas relating to performance outcomes.
Program Athletes Tamsin Cook Damian Fyfe Grace Hull Zac Incerti
Alex Milligan George Harley Blair Evans Hadley Lindsay
National Team Representation 2015 Junior World Championships - Singapore: Tamsin Cook, Damian Fyfe Oceania Championships - Fiji: Zac Incerti, Hadley Lindsay
Major Title Winners 2015 Junior World Championships - Singapore: Tamsin Cook (400m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay) Australian National Championships: Blair Evans (400m IM)
Coaching Achievements 2015 Junior World Championships - Singapore: Michael Palfery 2015 WAIS Coach of the Year: Michael Palfery
Rhys Mainstone enjoyed a consistent campaign over the open water world cup series, to finish third overall. Mainstone also won a national title in the men’s 5km open water, and was second in the men’s 10km event.
Blair Evans
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