Shoulder Injury Forces Ariarne Titmus To Miss Australian Dolphins National Event Camp On The Gold Coast

Ariarne Titmus AUS, 400m Freestyle Final, 18th FINA World Swimming Championships 2019, 21 July 2019, Gwanju South Korea. Pic by Delly Carr/Swimming Australia. Pic credit requested and mandatory for free editorial usage. THANK YOU.

GOLDEN SMILE: Ariarne Titmus after winning gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2019 Fina World Championships. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

Shoulder Injury Forces Ariarne Titmus To Miss Australian Dolphins National Event Camp On The Gold Coast

Australia’s lone 2019 individual world champion and Tokyo Olympic hope Ariarne Titmus will be missing with a shoulder injury when 64 of the country’s top swimmers arrive on the Gold Coast this week for the Swimming Australia National Event Camps.

Titmus had clocked an impressive 1:55.93 to win the 200m freestyle on the opening night of the Queensland State Championships in December, before withdrawing from the remainder of the meet.

The 20-year-old will remain in her home program at St Peters Western in Brisbane as she undergoes her re-hab sessions.

A Swimming Australia spokesperson said: “Ariarne is currently managing a minor left shoulder complaint. As the National Event Camps will consist of a lot of high intensity training sessions, the decision was made for her to remain in her home program to continue with her own structured rehab plan.”

It is the new Olympic year and every precaution will be taken, with Titmus the key ingredient in a women’s freestyle group that took some giant leaps forward in Gwangju.

Titmus went eye-ball-to-eye-ball and stroke-for-stroke with the world’s greatest ever freestyler in Kate Ledecky before taking home the gold in a stunning 400m freestyle upset.

She added silver in the 200 and bronze in the 800 before joining Emma McKeon, Brianna Throssell and Madi Wilson for a stirring gold medal in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay in a world record time.

Meanwhile Rio Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers, who underwent shoulder surgery in Sydney in December, is a confirmed starter in the Camp after his encouraging 48.55 relay split at the South Australian State Championships last month in Adelaide.

He will join fellow sprinters Jack Cartwright (St Peters Western), Alex Graham (Bond University), Cam McEvoy (TSS Aquatic), James Roberts (Somerset) and Louis Townsend (Rackley) under his personal coach Peter Bishop.

The Olympic Program Dolphins will unite as a group for the first time since 2019 when they assemble between February 3 ands 13 across three Gold Coast venues venues – the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Bond University and Palm Beach Aquatic Centre with this year’s NECs take on a new format, with all nine camps converging in Queensland rather than scattered camps around the country.

The 10-day event, which aims to create a high intensity training environment, will comprise of three components: freestyle, form stroke and the National Relay Project.

Australia’s freestyle specialists will dive in first (February 3-6), followed by a whole-team approach to the National Relay Project (February 7-9), and conclude with the country’s top form-strokers (February 9-13).

Australia’s next wave of elite young talent – including the likes of Lani Pallister (Griffith University), Ella Ramsay (St Peters Western), Mollie O’Callaghan (St Peters Western), Meg Harris (St Peters Western), Elizabeth Dekkers (Newmarket Racers), Chelsea Hodges (Southport Olympic), Thomas Hauck (All Saints) and Sam Short (Rackley) will also take part in the camps, affording them valuable opportunities to train alongside experienced Olympians in Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon and Olympic champions Mack Horton and Chalmers.

Swimming Australia said: “Not only will the NECs strengthen the athletes’ skills in the pool, but it will also give them the opportunity to connect with past champions of the sport.

“A dinner with members of the Beijing women’s 4x200m gold medal relay team (Linda Mackenzie, Kylie Palmer, Stephanie Rice and Bronte Barratt) and the Sydney men’s 4x100m gold medal relay team (Ian Thorpe, Chris Fydler, Michael Klim and Ashley Callus) has been organised – instilling and enriching the history of our Australian Dolphins.

National Team Head Coach, Rohan Taylor, said the camps play an important role in reconnecting the entire team, while also creating an environment conducive to success.

“These National Event Camps are the first opportunity in more than a year for our elite athletes, leading coaches and world-class performance support personnel to come together as a team,” Taylor said.

“With the challenges we had to overcome in 2020 and the months of separation between all of us, we decided to change the format this year and have all the camps in one location so we could reconnect, which is crucial leading into the Olympics.

“Bringing together the best of the best – including some of the country’s top sport scientists – will enable us to create a high intensity training environment that will ultimately lift performance and unlock that one percent which will be vital for success in Tokyo.

“There’ll also be a big focus on the National Relay Project, with the aim to strengthen our relay teams.

“Relay medals are a key focus for our team and these camps provide a valuable opportunity to work closely with our sports science team to refine our skills.

“The camps are also a key activity in aligning our high performance programs to our strategic goals; building champions both in and out of the pool as well as winning when it matters most to inspire the nation.”

Taylor will be joined by a host of experienced coaches who will lead the individual camps, including Peter Bishop (Marion), Dean Boxall (St Peters Western), Simon Cusack (NSW High Performance Hub Coach), Craig Jackson (Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre High Performance Coach), Vince Raleigh (Brisbane Aquatic Centre High Performance Coach), Adam Kable (NSWIS Hub Coach), Glenn Baker (Southport) and Michael Bohl (Griffith University).

Click here to view the camp breakdowns, including coach and athlete list.

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Troyy

3 years ago

There doesn’t appear to be any athletes from WA attending. Do you know why?

Joel

3 years ago

Reply to Troyy

The lockdown in Perth?