Test the best: Aussie swim ace primed for Pan Pacs
Steve Larkin |
With all due respect to the Commonwealth Games, this is the swim meet Lani Pallister has been waiting for.
Australia’s rising freestyle force is primed to challenge the world’s best duo at the Pan Pacific championships starting on Thursday, Australian time.
Pallister will duel with American legend Katie Ledecky and Canadian ace Summer McIntosh in highly-anticipated races in Irvine, California.
“My whole season has been about targeting Pan Pacs and wanting to race well, that’s where my biggest competitors are,” Pallister told AAP.
“And I’m really fortunate that physiologically and mentally, I have put myself in a position where I get to challenge the best in the world.”
Pallister and her Australian teammates contest the Pan Pacs just weeks after a wildly successful Commonwealth Games.
The 24-year-old collected four of Australia’s 37 gold medals in Glasgow, a record haul eclipsing the nation’s previous best Commonwealth Games of 28 golds at the 2018 Gold Coast edition.
Pallister became the first female swimmer to win the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle golds at a Commonwealth Games, and featured in Australia’s triumphant 4x200m freestyle relay.
After Glasgow come the Pan Pacs, the biggest global meet of the year.
“I don’t think it has been a challenge to get back and want to race,” Pallister said.
“I am not too stressed, which is nice. I’m able to go into a championship meet more excited at the opportunity rather than scared, which is awesome.
“When your biggest competitors are there racing and you get to challenge yourself, it’s always really exciting.
“As much as it is a challenge, that’s what we all want as competitors. You never want an easy win, you want to have to work for it.
“And Dean has put me in a position where I worked for it all season, so now it’s time to just get up and execute the race plan.”
Dean is master coach Dean Boxall, whom Pallister joined in March last year. Since then, her results have been nothing short of incredible.
Pallister has shaved a mind-boggling 10 seconds from her 800m personal best, set Australian records over 800m and 1500m, and logged PBs in the 200m and 400m.
Her feats include finishing behind Ledecky – who boasts nine Olympic and 23 world championship golds in her collection – by just 0.36 seconds in the 800m freestyle at last year’s world titles. McIntosh, the 400m freestyle world record holder, was third.
“It’s just a privilege and an honour that I am part of an era of women’s distance swimming that is pushing the boundary and doing exceptional things,” Pallister said.
AAP