Aussies Sweep Open Water Events at Junior Pan Pacs

MAUI, Hawaii, January 15. ALEXANDRA Bagley, 17, of Australia claimed her second international open water victory at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, Hawaii on Monday.

Bagley produced an emphatic swim in the 10K event to take her second gold medal of the meet after earlier in the week opening her account in the pool in the 1500-meter freestyle.

Leading the race from near start to finish the Australian stopped the clock in a time of 1:56.40, upsetting her American rival Kristen Groome (1:56.43), who placed fourth at the Open Water World Championships in Italy last year. Bagley's junior Dolphins team mate, Jamie Leigh Austin was third.

"Alex has all the makings of a bright future in the sport. She is a gifted swimmer who for her age has an amazingly strong head on her shoulders and it's a credit to not only herself but her family and coach, Don Watson Brown," Australian open water head coach Greg Towle said. "Swimmers of this nature don't come around very often and the focus now is making sure that she can gain as much race practice as possible before the World Championships in Melbourne where the competition is renowned as not only being fast but also very tactical and at times violent."

In the men's event, Australia finished first and second courtesy of James Davis and Sam Sheppard. Davis posted a comfortable victory in a time of 1:52.35, just more than a minute faster than his fellow countrymen with China's Yang Liu (1:55.30) rounding out the podium place getters.

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