Olivia Halicek earns 50m freestyle title at the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championship
Unsw Uniswim ‘s Olivia Halicek has earned the gold medal in the Women’s 50m freestyle on the final day of the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championship. The championship began on April 1, with the aim of selecting national swimmers to represent Australia
at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July.
The 22-year-old Halicek, qualified as the fastest swimmer in the preliminary rounds of the 50m freestyle in the first session of the day. She out-touched the defending champion, Yolane Kukla, who earned the title for the same event in 25.08 seconds, last
year.
Halicek won the 50m event in a time of 24. 88 seconds, ahead of former champion, Yolane, who clocked a time of 24.92 seconds for the silver medal. They were followed by Melbourne’s Sophie Edington, who reached the podium for the third spot in a time of 25.05
seconds.
Halicek and Kukla have confirmed their spots for the 2011 World Championships as their time was under the FINA time qualification standard of 24.96 seconds. Halicek will now make a debut to his international swimming career in Shanghai during July.
Halicek left swimming in 2009 and worked as a swimming coach but she decided to make a comeback to competitive swimming and stunned the arena with her stupendous swim.
Halicek said, "I kind of felt like I was plateauing and I was getting to the age where I didn't know if swimming was what I was going to be able to fall back on."
She added, "Just because I haven't received the achievements that I need to, so I had that time off, met my partner, we moved back into Sydney and I got back on the horse and tried again."
The 22-year-old Australian was extremely delighted with her effort and said that she aims to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games, as her mother Wendy Bowie did in 1982. She also said that this will be her first chance to represent Australia at
the international level and she will try hard to reach the podium in July.
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