Aussie Swimmers And Pop Star Cody Simpson Collide On Gold Coast Glitter Strip For Australian Championships

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CORONES STYLIST: Australian Dolphins Performance guru Jess Corones shows Cody Simpson her preferred style Photo Courtesy Hanson Media.

The countdown is on the Australian Open Swimming Championships opening session on the Gold Coast tonight with all eyes centred on the return of injured stars Kyle Chalmers and Ariarne Titmus and the arrival of home grown swimmer turned international pop star Cody Simpson.

Olympic champion Chalmers and Simpson trained this morning at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre and both certainly looked in tip top shape for their 100m freestyle heats tomorrow morning (Chalmers the top seed and Simpson 47th) and 100m butterfly heats on Friday – Chalmers the top seed and Simpson ranked 13th.

Bombo Quarry Landscape

GOGGLES LOCKED: Kyle Chalmers gets ready to race at the NSW Championships. Photo Courtesy: Nina Beilby (Swimming NSW)

For Chalmers it’s his next step post his shoulder operation last December in Sydney and before the 100 freestyle and butterfly he will turn out in the opening men’s event of the meet – the 200m freestyle tonight (6pm local time).

As will World champion Titmus who too has been re-habbing a shoulder injury since last December when she withdrew mid-meet from the Queensland State Championships.

Australian head coach Rohan Taylor is confident Chalmers and Titmus will be ready.

“Talking to their coaches they are on track; they’re here; they’re ready to compete. They have both been back to full training loads ..but obviously they are being mindful , this is a learning lesson but they are good to go…,” said Taylor.

“They are tracking towards the Olympic Trials and the Olympics and this meet is a step along the way.”

After his surgery, Chalmers raced with his club Marion SA in the 4x100m freestyle relay in January, splitting 48.55 and then won the NSW State Open 100m in March, where he clocked 48.50.

Tonight’s qualifiers will tackle the the opening morning finals session (to mirror the Tokyo Olympic AM timing) tomorrow Thursday (10am local time); the 100m freestyle heats (Friday evening) and the final Friday morning and finishing with the 100m butterfly heats on Friday evening and the final Saturday morning.

Dean Boxall and Ariarne Titmus

COUNTDOWN IS ON: 100 days to the Olympics and Dean Boxall says he and Ariarne Titmus will need every one of them to be prepare for her Tokyo tilt Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

Titmus’ coach Dean Boxall spoke about her return to racing a month ago where she won the 400 (4:06.53) and 800 metres (8:32.54) freestyles at the Brisbane Senior Metropolitan Championships.

“Arnie went to Senior Mets basically just to tick over, to get the adrenalin going just to see what it’s like and so that she wouldn’t feel coming here “how’s my shoulder going to be?”

 

“It’s a test run – we have 100 days to go to the Olympics and we are going to have to use every single day,” Boxall said.

Boxall confirmed that Titmus would swim her full program here, the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle.

“She has to get the racing going, to get that under her belt, dealing with the adrenalin again, understand where she’s at, using that as a blank canvas and then moving forward for the next 100 days,” said Boxall.

“We’ve got 100 days..we can do it…but every single day it’s going to be on. This competition is a benchmark for us. …the countdown is on…this is where we’re at, we’ve got 100 days to go….99, 98, 97, 96…..days to go, o it’s what you do now…the countdown is on.”

Taylor was also particularly impressed with the final 400m of Titmus’ 800 at the Brisbane meet – where she negative split – cruising through the 400m in 4:23.73 and coming home in 4:08.81 – where the 400m world champion came home over the final 200m in 2:02.71 (the final 100 in 1:00.60).

“She actually descended the race ..which was phenomenal…she had been building her training up and then got in and raced and it was just testing her out and seeing how she pulled up and all signs were she pulled up well,” said Taylor.

Titmus, like Chalmers, will start with the 200m freestyle heats tonight the final tomorrow morning; followed by the 400m freestyle heats on Friday evening and the final on Saturday morning with the 800m swum as a timed final with the fastest heat swum on Sunday morning .

Cody Rohan

TAYLOR MADE: Australian  head coach Rohan Taylor buys into Cody’s practice session on the Gold Coast. Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.

And Gold Coast born singer-song writer and Pop sensation, Simpson is also making his return to the pool after 10 years when he swam at the QLD States himself and is “turning back to the blocks” with his realistic sights set on the 2024 Paris Games.

The kid who swam at Miami under Denis Cotterell and followed his National Team parents Brad Simpson and Angie Greenwood into the fast lane was in the pool this morning with hundreds of other qualifiers, putting the finishing touches to his preparation and for his Nationals debut in the 100m freestyle heats tomorrow night (Thursday PM local time).

Cody ARM

FINER POINTS: Cody Simpson is all ears as Swimming Australia’s Performance guru Jess Corones gives the emerging butterflyer some pointers. Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.

Simpson’s main event, the 100m butterfly heats are on Friday evening and the 50m butterfly heats on Saturday evening and he looked very impressive as he went through his paces.

Simpson is ranked 13th of 34 coming into the meet in the 00m freestyle and will have to go top10 to swim in the final – which is certainly not impossible.

And he has Griffith University Olympic gold medal coach Michael Bohl in his corner this week, looking after him during the meet.

This morning Simpson had Bohl, head coach Taylor and Swimming Australia’s Performance Solutions Manager Jess Corones dissecting his stroke and working on his finer points.

Simpson’s presence at these Championships has guaranteed a huge increase in media accreditation with Swimming Australia receiving 50 media credentials.

Australian swimmers have often been likened to rock stars when they arrive at the Olympic Games but Cody Simpson is the real deal who also just happens to be a very good swimmer..wityh his goals to join them at the Olympics.

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