Bond University Swimming Club (BUSC) will be sending a crack squad of elite swimmers to the 2017 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships this weekend – an event which will decide who makes the Australian squad for both the World Championships in Budapest in June, as well as the World University Games in Taipei in August.
Bond University’s Head Coach, Richard Scarce said the team was in good form and looked promising to swim well at the nationals.
“The times the team have been swimming and the results we’ve been seeing in the pool at training indicates our swimmers have a really good chance of making the Australian team this year,” he said.
“They’ve been putting in the hard yards and physically are in great shape, so now it’s just a matter of them mentally preparing to give themselves every opportunity to perform to the best of their ability.
“The pressure will really be on swimmers this year to give their all from the get-go, with the event being condensed to just a five-day meet, instead of the eight-day comp we’ve seen in previous years.
Assistant Coach Kyle Samuelson said with semi-finals being cut altogether this year, the swimmers would have to perform very strongly in their heat to even make it to the final.
“The athletes will have to swim fast in the heats as there are no semis. The 100 and 200 metre freestyle events will be fiercely contended and will require no complacency to get through to qualifying,” he said.
“It’s never been tougher to make the Aussie national team, but we have some incredible swimming talent here at Bond and they’re in top form.
“Plus we hope having the home-town advantage of swimming at Chandler, a pool we know and enjoy, will help us as Queenslanders to achieve some excellent results.”
The BUSC team consists of high-profile swim stars, including dual Olympian Cam McEvoy and national short course swim champs Alex Graham and Brayden McCarthy, as well as a number of Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship and Bond University Sport Development scholarship recipients. Â
The Bond squad consists of:
- Mia Bellue
- Amy Forrester
- Alex Graham
- Brayden McCarthy
- Cam McEvoy
- Samantha McKenna
- Madeleine McTernan
- Jenna Strauch
- Samuel Wendt
- Elijah Winnington
- Sam Young
- Vivian Zhu
Bond University swimmer and Rio Olympian, Matt Stanley last week made the New Zealand team for the 2017 World Championships after a nail-biting finish at the NZ Open Championships in Auckland, that saw he and Matt Hutchins finish the men’s 200m freestyle event in a dead-heat.
Fellow Bond swimmer Michelle Coleman will also be competing next week at the Swedish National Championships, in a bid to quality for the Swedish team for the World Championships.
Bond students Laura Taylor (Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence scholarship recipient) and Jordan Harrison (Bond University Sports Development Scholarship recipient) will also be swimming at the nationals with a view to securing themselves a spot for Budapest.Â
You can follow all the action of the Bond Bullsharks in the pool at the 2017 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships here.
Also stay tuned to Bond Sport on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to track our team’s progress.
Go Bondies!