F-Teamers Off The Blocks For Opens

Our Age Group F-Teamers shined at last week's Nationals and now it's time for our Open swimmers to step up to the blocks at the 2021 Australian Swimming Championships which kick off on Wednesday at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre. With last year's Nationals raced virtually due to Covid, swimmers are eager to finally race against the best in the country to see how they are positioned in the lead up to Trials that will be held in June. The meet runs from till April 18 and if it's anything like Age Nationals, we're sure to see our F-Teamers put up some fast times. Heats will be run at night with finals taking place in the morning. This is to give the swimmers a chance to get used to the race schedule in Tokyo.

We caught up with Jack McLoughlin in the lead up to the event to find out what he is hoping to achieve at this year's Nationals. "Open Nationals is a really important stepping stone towards trials this year, so I will just be looking towards getting my race structures right and looking forward to some good, tough, hard racing. I am not looking for any specific times, I'm just looking at making sure I am racing hard and getting those structures right. I think it's going to be a different Nationals, as everyone will be in different stages moving towards trials. Some will be looking for times and performances while others like myself will be looking to use Nationals as an increased training tool to get ready for trials. It's going to be fun to get back into some good competitive racing especially with other countries having their trials and posting some world top times. But I need to maintain focus on trials in June and again make sure I am using this as a stepping stone with in season racing then the main objective. I am really looking forward to putting the APEX Predator race suit back on and just having some good old fashion racing!"

Wednesday
Open 200m Freestyle
Jack McLoughlin, Zac Incerti, Ashton Brinkworth, Jacob Hansford, Daniel Hunter, Zac George

18-21 Men 200m Freestyle
Mitch Tinsley

Open 100m Breaststroke
James McKechnie, Cameron Jordan, Ryan Bicknell

Open 50m Backstroke
Travis Mahoney, Zac Incerti, Nathan Foote

Open 400m IM
Brendon Smith

18-21 Men 400m IM
Thomas Lightfoot

Thursday
Open 50m Breaststroke
James McKechnie

18-21 Men 50m Breaststroke
Cameron Jordan Ryan Bicknell

18-21 Men 200m Butterfly
Ryan Bicknell, Thomas Lightfoot

Open 100m Freestyle
Ashton Brinkworth, Daniel Hunter, Zac Incerti, Jacob Hansford

18-21 100m Freestyle
Jamie Jack, Mitchell Tinsley

Open 100m Backstroke
Travis Mahoney, Zac Incerti, Nathan Foote

Friday
Open 800m Freestyle
Jack McLoughlin, Zac George

18-21 800m Freestyle
Mitchell Tinsley

Open 400m Freestyle
Jack McLoughlin, Jacob Hansford, Zac George, Zac Incerti

18-21 Men 400m Freestyle
Mitchell Tinsley, Thomas Lightfoot

Open 200m Backstroke
Travis Mahoney, Nathan Foote

Open 100m Butterfly
Ashton Brinkworth

18-21 100m Butterfly
Ryan Bicknell

Open 200m IM
James McKechnie

18-21 200m IM
Thomas Lightfoot

Saturday
Open 50m Freestyle
Ashton Brinkworth, Daniel Hunter

18-21 50m Freestyle
Jamie Jack

Open 200m Breaststroke
James McKechnie

18-21 200m Breaststroke
Ryan Bicknell, Thomas Lightfoot

Open 50m Butterfly
Ashton Brinkworth

18-21 1500m Freestyle
Mitchell Tinsley, Thomas Lightfoot

Sunday
Open 1500m Freestyle
Jack McLoughlin