Pan Pacs Preview: Short to target USA’s most decorated swimmer

The Pan Pacific Championships pool competition is less than 24 hours out and Sam Short (pictured) is already salivating at the prospect of racing the USA’s most decorated swimmer Bobby Finke.

Short, 22, will race Finke on the opening day of the pool competition at William Woollett Aquatic Centre in Irvine, California in one of the meet’s most anticipated duels.

Short is coming off a prolific Commonwealth Games in which he won the 400m, 800m and 1500m free while Finke is a 3x Olympic gold medallist.

“I love coming over here and racing. It’s such good competition as well, I love the heats – they are always fast … I came in to race the best, and that’s Bobby Finke. You know, he’s the greatest 1500 freestyle of our my generation so I came here to race him,” Short said.

“I am pretty excited to race him across all our events, I want to give Pan Pacs a red hot crack, and I’m excited to start with the 800m rather than the 400m to kind of get into the meet in a different way.”

Short will enter the 800m tomorrow off the back of a national record in this distance at the Australian Trials – placing him as the third-fastest performer in history and the fastest without a polyurethane suit.

Short’s record effort of 7:36.73 sliced more than a second off the time he swam to claim silver at the 2023 world championships in Japan – look out for Short to push the pace early to try and drop Finke who won his first two Olympic golds with Midas touch finishes.

DOLPHINS RACING ON DAY 1