Rowan Crothers leads Dolphins opening night raid at Para Pan Pacs

 

The Australian Para Swim Team dived into its Para Pan Pacific Championships campaign in Walnut, California in frantic fashion, collecting an impressive 13 medals at Mt San Antonio College.

At the first splash of Night 1 finals, decorated Dolphin Lakeisha Patterson claimed bronze in the women’s multi-class 100m freestyle before Rowan Crothers led a spectacular Australian podium sweep in the men’s event.

The two-lap dash is sentimental to Crothers and victory over a fast-finishing Tom Gallagher, and Callum Simpson has the 196cm giant pumped for the 100m-50m double.

For the Dolphins, the three-day meet from August 28-30 – in an open-air pool and which has attracted 10 nations and 170 athletes – is a survey marker on the road trip to LA28.

The meet also uses a heats-to-finals format, with the top-eight swimmers – based on World Para Swimming (WPS) points – advancing to the final with a maximum of three swimmers per country eligible for the A final.

In the men’s SM3-4 150m IM, the best of mates and fiercest of competitors Ahmed Kelly and Grant “Scooter” Patterson reversed their heat result with Kelly seven seconds quicker in the cooler evening air to best his buddy and claim gold.

Head coach Mel Tantrum went into this meet with a focus on relays and Australia’s 4x100m mixed medley 34 pt relay A and B team claimed gold (Jesse Aungles, Callum Simpson, Keira Stephens, and Emily Beecroft) and silver (Liam Togher, Tim Hodge, Jasmine Greenwood and Chloe Osborn).

The mixed medley 4x100m S14 team (Declan Budd, Ricky Betar, Montana Atkinson, Ruby Storm) followed up by winning silver.

And take a bow Maddie McTernan. The S14 Gold Coast-based athlete raced to silver in the 200m freestyle setting an Oceania record of 2:10.71 in the process.

Australia’s 37-member Dolphins’ team will now focus on recovery and hydration ahead of Day 2 after extreme heat conditions saw water temperatures hit 28 degrees.

Heats: 9.30am Local time / 2.30am next day AEST

Day 2 Race Previews:
> Just a month ago, 17-year-old Beau Matthews announced himself on the world stage when he won gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB9 on Dolphins debut at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. His idol – and Australia’s flag bearer at the Games – Tim Hodge also won bronze in the event. Matthews and Hodge line up again for the two-lap event in California, with teen up-and-comer Liam Togher and Australia’s fastest breaststroker in the S14 classification, Jake Michel, in the mix.

> Highly decorated Dolphins Lakeisha ‘Lucky’ Patterson and Brenden Hall have arrived in-form for their speciality 400m freestyle event. After battling a series of seizures, Patterson has returned stronger than ever and has been posting times quicker than her victory at last year’s World Championships. Hall – a former world record holder and multiple Paralympic medallist in the event – will have the next wave of Dolphin stars, including Callum Simpson and Harrison Vig, snapping at his heels.

> Two-time Paralympian Keira Stephens‘ resurgence under Mel Marshall at Griffith is set to continue after helping Australia to gold in the mixed medley 34-point relay on opening night. Earlier this year, she took out the women’s 100m breaststroke title at the World Para Series on the Gold Coast, and will face another internationally competitive field in tomorrow’s 100m breaststroke event.