Aussies Announce Pan Pac Team for Canada, but Many Big Names Will Skip the Meet

By Stephen J. Thomas

Canberra, Australia, February 10. TWENTY-SIX members of Australia’s Commonwealth Games swim team are among the 40-strong squad named today for the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships to be held at the Saanich Commonwealth Pool in Victoria, Canada from August 17-20.

The team includes reigning 2005 world champions Jessicah Schipper and Jade Edmistone, Olympic breaststroke silver medalist Brooke Hanson and dorsal specialist Matt Welsh, the 2001 and 2003 world champion.

However, many of Australia’s biggest names competing at the Commonwealth Games next month were unavailable for this team, a fact that will certainly take considerable expectation away from the meet. Those names include Ian Thorpe, Leisel Jones, Libby Lenton, Jodie Henry, Alice Mills, Giaan Rooney, Sophie Edington, Tayliah Zimmer, Michael Klim and Jim Piper. Most have chosen to concentrate on their preparation for the selection trials for the 2007 World Championships which will be held in Melbourne in November.

Five rookies, Trent Grimsey, Cameron Smith, Ephraim Hannant, Hayden Stoeckel and Melanie Schlanger have been named on their first major Australian team.

2000 British Olympian Joanna Fargus will make her Pan Pac debut after being named on her first Australian team for next month’s Commonwealth Games while former Canadian Kurtis MacGillivary will return to Canada again for the second time on an Australian team after last year’s World Championships in Montreal.

Australian head coach Alan Thompson said the Pan Pac team had a strong mix of experienced internationals and emerging talent.

“This is an exciting blend of experience and youth and those swimmers on their first or second teams will greatly benefit from being on a team with so many Olympians and long serving team members,” Thompson said.

“It is important to provide as much international competition for our swimmers on the road to Beijing and when you look at the Commonwealth Games, the FINA World Short Course and Pan Pacific Championships, there will be over seventy Australian swimmers who will race in a major international competition this year.”

2006 Telstra Dolphins Australian Swim Team:

MEN:
L Brodie (Albany Creek QLD)
N Ffrost (Southport Olympic QLD)
C Flouch (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
T Grimsey (Albany Creek QLD)
E Hannant (Miami QLD)
J Krogh (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
A Lauterstein (Southport Olympic QLD)
A Lucas (West Coast WA)
K MacGillivary (Miami QLD)
A Mewing (Miami QLD)
K Monk (SAC Seals NSW)
T Nederpelt (City of Perth WA)
A Pine (Yeronga Park QLD)
A Richards (Smithfield NSW)
B Rickard (Carey Aquatic VIC)
E Rolff (Kingscliff NSW)
C Smith (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
H Stoeckel (Kingscliff NSW)
E Sullivan (West Coast WA)
M Welsh (Melbourne Vicentre VIC)

WOMEN:
F Adcock (Norwood SA)
B Barratt (Albany Creek QLD)
L Carroll (Fremantle Port WA)
J Edmistone (Southern Crawl QLD)
M Englesman (Manly Jetz NSW)
J Fargus (Miami QLD)
M Gorman (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
E Graham (Sydney University NSW)
B Hanson (Nunawading VIC)
S Katsoulis (Carey Aquatic VIC)
L MacKenzie (Mackay QLD)
K Palmer (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
S Paton (Telopea NSW)
S Reese (Carey Aquatic VIC)
J Reilly (City of Perth WA)
S Rice (St Peters Western QLD)
J Schipper (Redcliffe Leagues Lawnton QLD)
M Schlanger (Marochydore QLD)
C South (Norwood SA)
K Stubbins (Haleybury Waterlions VIC)

HEAD COACH:
A Thompson

ASSISTANT COACHES:
M Bohl (QLD)
J Fowlie (ACT)
D Frost (ACT)
V Raleigh (ACT)
S Redmond (WA)
J Rogers (QLD)
N Simpson (NSW)
G Stoelwinder (WA)
R Taylor (VIC)
K Wood (QLD)

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