World Championships, Day One Women’s Finals: Australia’s Lani Pallister Graduates To Gold In The 400m Freestyle

MEDALLISTS IN THE HOUSE: Gold medallist Lani Pallister (centre) with silver medallist Ericka Fairweather (left) and bronze medallist Leah Smith. Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan (Speedo International).

A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet

World Championships, Day One Women’s Finals: Australia’s Lani Pallister Graduates To Gold In Women’s 400m Freestyle

A three-time Junior World Champion, Australia’s Lani Pallister has graduated to swimming’s elite ranks with flying colours in Melbourne tonight with a slashing win in the women’s 400m freestyle on the opening night of the Fina World Short Course Championships.

The 20-year-old from the Gold Coast bided her time through the first 300 metres before pouncing on early leader, New Zealand’s Erica Fairweather to win her first open title in a personal best time of 3:55.04 (1:56.81).

Day 1 Results

Fairweather, the fastest qualifier from this morning’s preliminaries, chased Pallister home to take the silver in 3:56.00 (1:56.69), her second personal best of the day with USA’s Leah Smith taking the bronze in 3:59.78 (1:58.49).

It has been a remarkable comeback for Pallister who overcame heart surgery (a cardiac ablation) and an eating disorder to win bronze medals at this year’s World Championships and Commonwealth Games – with Covid forcing an early exit from the World’s in Budapest.

But Pallister turned those bronze medals into gold, with her mum Janelle Pallister (nee Elford) and assistant coach to Michael Bohl at the Griffith University program and her father Rick in the grandstands.

Results

Pallister made her move approaching the 300m mark, edging past the brave 18-year-old Kiwi, revealing her dilemma before the race of when to bring in her legs.

“I didn’t know when to use my legs, it was weird still having them there towards the end of the race,” said Pallister.

“I knew it was going to be tough and I had spoken to coach Michael Bohl about it pretty much all day knowing that I needed to bring them in and I texted my Mum (for her advice as well).

“It is the first time I’ve had (coach) Mum on pool deck as just Mum and my Dad Rick being here as well.

“He he normally stays at home and watches on TV so to have their support and going through this journey and everything she’s done is just amazing.”

Pallister becomes the third Australian to win this event, following Kylie Palmer in 2008 and Ariarne Titmus in 2018.

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