Young Aussie team ready to take on the world at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships

Swimming Australia
Published: Aug 23, 2012 06:48:40 PM Updated: Sep 12, 2012 11:05:39 PM

Australia’s next crop of Olympic swimming hopefuls will take on some of the world’s best swimmers at this year’s Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The four-day meet gets underway tomorrow with the Australian team sure to face tough competition from the USA, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

Previous Junior Pan Pacific teams have included a number of current Olympians including Jayden Hadler, Ryan Napoleon, Blair Evans and dual London Olympic medallist Brittany Elmslie. This year’s rising stars will no doubt have their eyes on positions on the senior Australian teams over the next four years leading into the 2016 Rio Olympics

One of these stars showing potential is 16-year-old Brianna Throssell, a triple Australian Age Champion from April this year. But, the West-Australian swimmer will have to battle her younger Australian rival, Ami Matsuo to secure a place in the finals.

New South Wales based Matsuo is currently ranked 11^th in the world for the under 18 women’s 50m freestyle and 10^th for the under 18 100m freestyle and like Throssell, she too picked up three Australian Age titles in April.

After narrowly missing a spot on this year’s Australian Olympic Team placing third in the 200m backstroke behind Belinda Hocking and Meagen Nay at the EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships, Mikkayla Sheridan will be keen to prove her potential at an international level.

The 17-year-old has impressive world rankings; Sheridan is currently ranked 8^th in the world for the 400m freestyle and 6^th for the 200m backstroke for the under 18 age group.

For the boys, 5-times-Commonwealth Youth Games medallist Eugene Tee is looking in fine form to take on the powerful US swimmers in the individual medley events.

While four-time Australian Age Champion in the 15-years age group Mack Horton who recorded a B-qualifying time for the 1500m freestyle at the EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships will be keen to demonstrate his dominance in the freestyle events.

High Performance Youth Coach, Vince Raleigh said he was hoping the young group would be able to step-up and perform for the competition.

“We want the kids to be able to race at their peak.  They will face very strong international competition, one of the young Japanese swimmer has recently posted a time that would have won bronze at this year’s Olympic Games, so those that are able to perform will be taking huge steps toward a very successful future in swimming, Raleigh said.

This is a very exciting group and there is no doubt we could see some of these guys break into the open team as early as this year’s Short Course World Cup,” Raleigh said.

The first round of heats will start at 10:00am tomorrow with finals from 5:00pm (Hawaiian time) each night.

2012 Junior Pan Pacific Championships Team, Guam, January, 8-12:

 Male Athletes -

Lennard	Bremer	17	Arena	WA
Chris	Deegan	16	Burnside	SA
Andrew	Digby	18	SouthportOlympic	QLD
Jared	Gilliland	17	NudgeeBrothers	QLD
Alexander	Graham	16	StKevinsAquatic	VIC
Jordan	Harrison	16	Miami	QLD
Mack	Horton	15	MelbourneVicentre	VIC
Regan	Leong	16	TownsvilleMarlins	QLD
Matthew	Levings	17	Miami	QLD
Sean	Maloney	16	WodenValley	NSW
David	Morgan	17	TSSAquatics	QLD
Hugo	Morris	17	WodenValley	NSW
David	Parsonson	17	Miami	QLD
Tommy	Sucipto	17	SouthLakeDolphins	WA
Buster	Sykes	18	NudgeeBrothers	QLD
Eugene	Tee	18	SurreyPark	VIC
Joshua	Tierney	17	LoganVikings	QLD
Female Athletes
Jessica	Bayliss	15	AustralianCrawl	QLD
Georgia	Bohl	15	StPetersWestern	QLD
Laura	Crockart	17	Ryde?Carlile	NSW
Remy	Fairweather	15	KawanaWaters	QLD
Kareena	Lee	18	MountainCreekMooloolaba	QLD
Ami	Matsuo	16	Carlile	NSW
Taylor	McKeown	17	AustralianCrawl	QLD
Keryn	McMaster	18	LoganVikings	QLD
Leah	Neale	16	CYMSStEdmund’s	QLD
Kotuku	Ngawati	17	MelbourneVicentre	VIC
Ellen	O’Rourke	16	CherrybrookCarlile	NSW
Alexandra	Purcell	17	SouthportOlympic	QLD
Emily	Seymour	16	RedcliffeLeagues	QLD
Mikkayla	Sheridan	17	Chandler	QLD
Brianna	Throssell	16	CityofPerth	WA
Samantha	Wilkins	17	Waterlions	VIC
Madison	Wilson	17	StPetersWestern	QLD