The Australian junior swimming team, including St Peters Lutheran College Springfield’s Mollie O’Callaghan and Jenna Forrester, successfully finished their 2019 Fina World Junior Championships campaign, landing third in the medal tally and recording some new personal best times in the process.
Team Australia captured their first two medals on the first night of the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships, which had more than 800 swimmers from 122 nations seeing action at the Duna Arena in Budapest.
Thomas Neil snared silver medal in the Men’s 400m Freestyle with a personal best time of 3:46.27. Whilst the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay saw the team of Lani Pallister (1.58.61), Michaela Ryan (1.59.11), Rebecca Jacobson (2.00.71), and Jenna Forrester (1.59.44) finishing second behind USA.
The Aussies claimed their first gold of the meet, courtesy of Lani Pallister, after she powered her way through in the Women’s 800m Freestyle, whilst Mollie O’Callaghan clocked 1:00.27, beating her personal best recorded the night before, to finish fourth in the Women’s 100m Backstroke.
The third night of the competition saw Australia bagging back-to-back bronze medals. St Peters Western Swim Club‘s Meg Harris took home the bronze in the 100m Freestyle final after a heart-stopping finish of 54.58. USA’s Gretchen Walsh (53.74) and Torri Huske (54.54), took first and second place, respectively. Thomas Neil contributed another bronze to the Australian medal haul, finishing third place in the Men’s 800m Freestyle
Lani Pallister secured another gold medal for Australia in the Women’s 400m Freestyle, on night four of the championship meet. Cotton Tree’s Pallister swam to a new personal best and a new championship record, timing 4:05.42. Australia also took the bronze in the Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay that night.
By the fifth night, Australia had already amassed four gold, three silver, and three bronze medals, thanks to the back-to-back junior world titles of Bronte Job and Lani Pallister. Job struck gold in the Women’s 50m Backstroke in 27.87.
Proving that she is in it to win it, Lani Pallister continued to shine with another sterling performance by breaking the 16-minute barrier in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle clocking 15.58.86 — a new personal best and championship record by the 17-year-old. The Women’s 4x100m Freestyle team of O’Callaghan, Harris, Pallister, and Jacobson captured the silver medal behind the USA.
Capping off a massively successful showing, Lani Pallister was named “Female Swimmer of the Meet” on the final night, after making another trip to the podium to wear her Women’s 200m Freestyle silver medal.
Thomas Neill also claimed another silver medal for the Australian junior swimming team via Men’s 1500m Freestyle Relay with a new personal best of 14:59.19.
Rounding off the successful Aussie championship campaign was Meg Harris bronze finish in the Women’s 50m Freestyle “splash n dash” with a personal best time of 24.89 seconds.
All told, Australia took home four gold medals, five silver, and four bronze with the USA leading the medal tally board with 37 medals (18 gold, 10 silver, and nine bronze). Russia had 22 (seven gold, 11 silver, and four bronze), Italy with 12 (3 gold, 2 silver, and 7 bronze), and Canada with 12 (2 gold, 5 silver, and 5 bronze)