World Championships, Doha: Brianna Still Going Full Throssell With 16 Medals From Six World Championship Campaigns

OH MY GOODNESS: A moment Brianna Throssell has been waiting her whole career for - individual bronze in the 200m freestyle in Doha. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

World Championships, Doha: Brianna Still Going Full Throssell With 16 Medals From Six World Championship Campaigns

It’s been quite the journey for Queensland’s two-time Olympian Brianna Throssell who has celebrated her 28^th birthday in Doha this week – already adding four more medals – including her first individual placing – bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle to her amazing medal collection.

It has taken Throssell’s total of World Championship medals to 16 (5 Gold, 8 Silver and 3 bronze) with her bronze overnight in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay and after that well-deserved individual bronze and earlier silvers in Australia’s 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m mixed medley relays.

SHOW AND TELL: Brianna Throssell at 28 like a kid in a candy shop. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

All that in the first five days of this meet at the Aspire Dome and with three days left to swim and the 50m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay still to come don’t be surprised if this quiet achiever on the Dolphins Swim Team adds to her already heavy medal collection.

The former Western Australian, who in 2016 at age 20, qualified for the final of the 200m butterfly at her first Olympics in Rio, made her debut for Australia at just 16 at the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, where she won silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Throssell, who was coached by Matt Magee in WA and Mick Palfrey in WA and then on Sunshine Coach (QLD) has landed into Australia’s champion club, the Brisbane-based St Peters Western (SPW) squad under super coach Dean Boxall where she has revelled over the past two years in the competitive, hard-working atmosphere of one of the world’s premier programs.

In an interview for Swimming World Magazine after last year’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Boxall spoke highly of Throssell after his all-girl SPW team of Ariane Titmus, Shayna Jack, Mollie O’Callaghan and Throssell charged to 4x200m freestyle gold, setting a new world record to boot.

Boxall saying: “Bri Throssell is the unsung hero (of this SPW group and of the Australian Swim Team).

“Bri is just there…and she has always been there…for 12 years and now she (is) in a program that works really hard.

“She said to me she had never been more nervous in her life than in Fukuoka’ before the 4×200’ and that’s because of the conversation (we had) ….because conversations change mindsets….she was 27 years old (then)….she’s a swimmer who keeps trying to push and finding a way to get better.”

It’s the perfect summation of Throssell who felt like she’d won gold with her bronze medal-winning individual swim in that 200m freestyle behind Siobhan Haughey (Hong Kong) and Erika Fairweather (New Zealand) – her first individual medal from six campaigns and an agonising close-up fourth-placed finish in the 100m butterfly here – beaten by 0.03!

“I’m just really proud,” said Throssell.

HAPPY CAMPER: Brianna Throssell can’t hide her joy in Doha. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)

“Being 28 … I want to give hope to the people who are a little bit older, and this shows perseverance pays off.

“I’m really overwhelmed to be honest and … freestyle is never something I thought I’d be racing internationally and to be on the podium, is incredible.”

But it is a path that Australia’s most astute coaches always knew Throssell could travel down.

Two-time Olympic head coach, Leigh Nugent, wearing one of his many hats as former WA Head Coach and Technical Lead for Swimming Australia, said of Throssell in 2015 that the rising teenager was certainly capable of winning medals at international level in the near future.

Nugent had been conducting a coaching tour of WA’s Great Southern Region to give advice to swimmers and coaches before watching a Matt Magee-led session at Perth City Swimming Club, where Throssell (18 at the time) was training.

Nugent revealed he had been monitoring Throssell’s progress since first seeing her swim as an 11-year-old at the South Australian State championships.

“She took my eye right from the start,” he said. “Just the way that she swam, she raced. She was an athletic young girl,” remembered Nugent.

“I have been involved with her development all the way along. You could see that she was a definite prospect way back then.”

(Nugent was actually in charge of the National team when Throssell broke through in her maiden senior squad in Istanbul in 2012.)

Nugent said exposure to the world’s best was the key to Throssell taking the next step.

“That (2012 short course) was her entry really to open international performances and I

think she’s definitely someone that can be a podium person for us in the future,” he said.

MEDLEY MIX: Brianna Throssell (second from right) with (L-R) Bradley Woodward, Sam Williamson and Shayna Jack – silver in the Mixed Medley Relay.Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

“They can develop that quite quickly if they have some international success or they feel that they’re in the mix. For Bri, international exposure is really important now.

“Hopefully she can be successful in gaining selection at the world championships (in Russia in 2015).

“That competition prior to the Olympics is just the best experience you can get.”

Wise words that have continued to reap rewards for Throssell who is now thriving in the SPW environment.

It is worth noting that Australia’s bronze medal winning 4x200m freestyle relay team last night were once again all swimmers from Dean Boxall’s SPW squad with Shayna Jack, Abbey Harkin and Kiah Melverton joining Throssell and 17-year-old rising star Jaclyn Barclay (who swam the heats) and was also in the 100m backstroke final.

And in what has been another successful campaign for Boxall’s group (even without the likes of World and Olympic golden girls Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan), Elijah Winnington showed all of his fighting spirit too.

The 2022 world champion over 400m freestyle, adding silver in the 800m freestyle to his silver in the 400m from night one, after leading for the first 10 laps before being reeled in by Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri and then Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen.

Winnington dropped back to third on the final turn before surging for silver, and a big personal best of 7:42.95 behind Wiffen (7:40.94) with World and Olympic champion Paltrinieri (7:42.98) the bronze.

Saying he had looked across and saw Paltrinieri’s feet.

“I thought I have to lift….I was actually having a lot of fun (out there) because I usually don’t race these guys and I think that was a benefit to me as I didn’t really have pressure on myself. I’m not in Olympic shape yet and I’m stoked.”

Winnington has now broken into the World’s Top 25 All-Time for 800m freestyle with the 22^nd fastest time – behind four other great Australians: Sam Short (7:37.76) 4th; Grant Hackett (7:38.65) 6th; Ian Thorpe(7:39.16) 8^th and Jack McLoughlin (7:42.51) 21^st.

FACE RECOGNITION: Brianna Throssell and Shayna Jack all smiles in Doha. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

ON THE FLY: Brianna Throssell just 0.03 away from bronze in the 100m butterfly. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)…. and below…..RELAY SILVER: Women’s 4x100m freestyle (L-R) Shayna Jack, Abbey Harkin, Alexandria Perkins and Brianna Throssell. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

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