THE TEST? The first two Australians home would qualify to contest the final Olympic Team qualifier in Fukuoka on May 30, 31 and the competitor who finishes higher in the top nine or first from the Oceania region there will secure the coveted Olympic spot alongside women\u2019s qualifier, Kareena Lee, who was an impressive close up seventh in the women’s 10km.<\/p>\n
Cotter powered home in 1:50:01.50 not far off the podium which saw Mark-Antonie Olivia<\/strong> (FRA) a clear winner in 1:49.46.60 followed by German pair Rob Muffels<\/strong> (1:49.59.20) and reigning World 1500m and 10km world champion Florian Wellbrock<\/strong> (1:49.59.30).<\/p>\n And in a nail-biting finish between Armstrong and Kai Edwards (TSS Aquatic), only 0.10 separated the two as they touched the gantry.<\/p>\n LUCKY STAR: Bailey Armstrong lives to fight another day. Photo Courtesy: Bailey Armstrong.<\/p><\/div>\n Armstrong clocked 1:50:07.50, with the luckless Edwards a fingernail behind in 1:50:07.60; a bitterly disappointed reigning Australian champion Nick Sloman<\/strong> (Noosa) 25th<\/sup> in 1:50:09.50, followed by WA pair Nicholas Rollo<\/strong> (Perth City) 43rd<\/sup> in 1:50:21.20, while rising star Jack Wilson<\/strong> (North Coast WA) clocked 1:51:40.60 to finish 58th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Three-time Pier-to-Pub winner, 19-year-old Cotter \u2013 who has open water victories over Olympic champions Mack Horton<\/strong> (AUS) and Gregorio Paltrinieri<\/strong> (ITA) in the iconic Victorian open water race \u2013 produced \u201cthe swim of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n Cotter\u2019s close up seventh also added another Olympic champion\u2019s scalp, that of 2016 10km Olympic champion Ferry Weertman<\/strong> (NED) who was eighth in the helter skelter finish- and he was less than a second behind third-placed Wellbock.<\/p>\n The young Maroochydore lifesaver, an Australian under 17 and Under 19 surf race champion, who was third to Sloman in the prestigious National Open surf race title last season, has matured into an open water star over the past two years, carrying out his coach Harley Connolly\u2019s<\/strong> race plan to perfection.<\/p>\n And they are both the ultimate quiet achievers \u2013 both going about their business with a minimum of fuss \u2013 both men of few words, preferring their swimming and coaching to do the talking.<\/p>\n \u201cHayden swam the race of his life, he sat, he was attentive and positioned himself well wide of the pack after the final buoy turn as they swam down the final straight,\u201d said Greg Shaw, Swimming Australia Performance Director, Open Water.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did not want to get caught up in \u2018the fight\u2019 towards the end\u2026it\u2019s important to get clear water and deliver the speed you have\u2026. it doesn\u2019t matter how speedy you are in the pool\u2026. you don\u2019t want to get caught in the pack.<\/p>\n \u201cHayden made the right move, mixed it with the bigger names and overall it was really encouraging with the competitiveness of our male group\u2026while Hayden and Bailey will now fight it out for Tokyo\u2026we have a group that will all be primed for Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are all in their 20s and our men are right in the mix, with Nick (Sloman), the Australian champion (25th<\/sup>) but still not far away.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope Nick will now switch his attentions to still try to make the team for Tokyo in the 1500m\u2026if he does then it would be a competitive race at Trials with Jack McLoughlin<\/strong> and Thomas Neill,<\/strong> with the qualifying time standing at 14:55.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaw praised Cotter and Connolly, saying \u201cthey were a good package and they put together a good race, utilizing his speed and putting him into clear water\u2026open water is all about racing.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you haven\u2019t got yourself positioned towards the end then you haven\u2019t raced well, you can\u2019t afford to be found wanting in the last 100 metres.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to have the speed and the ability to back yourself and understand the environment and the conditions around you. We knew being a wetsuit swim there would be whole lot more people around at the finish and Hayden and Harley planned for that\u2026there were a lot of people in that pack.\u201d<\/p>\n It was important for Shaw to have all his coaches in Doha to continue to build the swimmer-coach relationships at major international meets and that\u2019s what Cotter and coach Connolly and Armstrong and his experienced Kawana coach Michael Sage did to deliver the goods.<\/p>\n The final spot for Fukuoka was left to Cotter\u2019s five team mates to battle it out for that second spot \u2013 and like a pack of sharks, a field of 30 wetsuit-clad swimmers, charged towards the finish shoot, all clambering to touch the board.<\/p>\n And it was Armstrong, one of Australia\u2019s strongest surf lifesaving swimmers, who out-touched Gold Coaster Edwards by just 0.10 \u2013 after swimming 10km in just over 1 hour and 50 minutes.<\/p>\n While Cotter had qualified for the Doha race as one of four members of the official Australian team\u2013 receiving full funding \u2013 both Armstrong and Edwards had to pay their own way to the Middle East \u2013 the price they were both prepared to pay for a shot at making the Australian Olympic team.<\/p>\n Armstrong had finished 14th<\/sup> in the Australian championship at Brighton Beach, SA last month \u2013 the sixth fastest Australian in the field \u2013 but all was not lost.<\/p>\n CAUGHT IN THE WHITEWASH: Orange juice anyone? Photo Courtesy: Qatar Swimming Association.<\/p><\/div>\n Shaw revealed that Armstrong had also suffered gastric in the week leading up to Adelaide after it had been revealed by Swimming World<\/em> at the time that Edwards had been in hospital just days before the race himself.<\/p>\n \u201cBailey was actually sick with gastric as was Kai Edwards the week before the Australian Championship in Adelaide,\u201d confirmed Shaw, the former champion Australian butterflyer who went on to work as nutritionist for the Brisbane Lions AFL team before becoming a vital member of the Australian swim team staff.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is not the most talented swimmer but Bailey is a great open water swimmer, a hard worker and a tough racer, he becomes a different athlete in the ocean.<\/p>\n \u201cA real racer in that respect, the quintessential open water swimmer; when he\u2019s in the salt water he really comes into his own.<\/p>\n \u201cThat comes from his surf swimming background (with Northcliffe) and after the disappointment of Adelaide he and coach Michael Sage went back to Kawana to re-focus and re-set \u2013 you add his absolute desire to race and that makes the difference.<\/p>\n \u201cKai Edwards can certainly consider himself so unlucky, sick in Adelaide and missing the next stage of Olympic qualification by 0.10 behind his team mate Armstrong.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s tough to swallow but it shows the kind of depth that we have in our program when they are pushing each other like that.\u201d<\/p>\n SCREEN SHOT: Tokyo-bound Kareena Lee adds sunscreen to her face before her race as coach John “JR” Rodgers talks about setting the pace. Photo Courtesy: Qatar Swimming Association.<\/p><\/div>\n Having already secured her ticket to Tokyo, Noosa\u2019s Lee is making the most of every chance to race international competition as she prepares for her Olympic Games debut.<\/p>\n Fresh from her Australian Women\u2019s 10km Open title last month, the 26-year-old fought hard in a \u201cvery tight\u201d finish to place seventh overall in 1:56:43.90. After swimming 10km, amazingly, only 2.80 seconds separated the first seven athletes across the line.<\/p>\n Lee said she adapted to the conditions and followed her race plan throughout the swim.<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely when we dived in it was cold, but it actually got quite hot towards the end with the sun on us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good race and a very fast race from the start. It was very tight in the end; I don\u2019t know how many of us were coming into the finish, but it was a crazy finish and I got a bit caught in the middle there.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s fellow Australian competitors finished 23rd<\/sup>, 28th<\/sup> and 35th<\/sup> in a stacked field of 53, with Kawana Waters\u2019 Madisyn Armstrong<\/strong> clocking 1:57:50.60, Bianca Crisp<\/strong> from TSS Aquatic recording 1:59:12.50 and Kawana Waters\u2019 Chloe Gubecka<\/strong> coming home in 2:02:33.70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two South East Queensland surf lifesavers will go head-to-head in a 10km Open Water shoot-out in May and the prize will be a place on the 2020 Australian Olympic Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7938,"featured_media":415724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[65846,65844,82923,51221,121348,32022,118204,82924,63445,51062,39125,25316,121349,121350,120626,121347,68809,36244],"class_list":["post-415723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-bailey-armstrong","tag-bianca-crisp","tag-chloe-gubecka","tag-ferry-weertman","tag-florian-wellbock","tag-gregorio-paltrinieri","tag-harley-connolly","tag-hayden-cotter","tag-jack-wilson","tag-kai-edwards","tag-kareena-lee","tag-mack-horton","tag-madisyn-armstrong","tag-mark-antonie-olivia","tag-michael-sage","tag-nichoas-rollo","tag-nicholas-sloman","tag-rob-muffels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"Bailey](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Bailey-Armstrong-thumbs-up-700x500.jpg\")
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