Blues Foursome Join a host of Olympians on Show at The 2024 Sydney Open UniSport Nationals
NSW Olympic hopefuls Bradley Woodward (Mingara), Matthew Wilson (SOPAC), William Yang (SOPAC) and Olivia Wunsch (Carlile) will be among the ones to watch at this weekend’s 2024 Sydney Open UniSport Nationals Meet at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
BUY SPECTATOR TICKETS FOR UNDER $10 HERE
The Sydney Open UniSport Nationals will be an all-important final stop for many swimmers with their sights set on next month’s 2024 Australian Swimming Trials for the Paris Olympics (Brisbane Aquatic Centre, June 10-15).
A meet that has also attracted four-time Olympian Emily Seebohm (St Margaret’s, QLD) as the 29-year-old mum chases a fifth Games; South Australian Tokyo Olympian Matt Temple (Marion, SA) who has swum his way into medal calculations in the 100m butterfly and World Championship silver medallist in the 200m butterfly Lizzie Dekkers (Chandler, QLD).
Along with members of the Paris-bound New Zealand Olympic team spearheaded by world champions Lewis Clareburt and Erika Fairweather, who will both have full-books.
Wilson, the 25-year-old former world record holder in the 200m breaststroke, will face off against Queensland’s Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook, who will be racing for his Griffith University team throughout the three-day meet.
Coached by five-time NSW Coach Of the Year Adam Kable at the Olympic Park Performance Hub, Wilson will put all his racing eggs in one basket in his favoured 200m event on Saturday night, the final night of the meet.
While Stubblety-Cook, who has had some outstanding results at recent Sydney Open Meets, winning the 100 and 200m doubles in 2021 and 2023, will contest all three breaststroke events, the 50, 100 and 200m.
Stubblety-Cook admitting after this year’s Australian Open that losing his world record and his world title in Fukuoka lasty year could well be a blessing as he sets his sights on Paris.
“I think it's probably what I needed if I'm being honest. You get to the top and you get a little bit complacent. I don't know if complacent is the right word; it's more just comfortable. I think you get comfortable in the routine and a bit numb with racing at a high level," Stubblety-Cook said on the Gold Coast.
"This year and last year it's been really good to have a bit more hunger. Paris gets closer and closer every day. That's always been the emphasis — the big game.”
Wilson finished fifth to Stubblety-Cook in last month’s 200m final at Australian Open on the Gold Coast, and will also contend with Chandler’s Bailey Lello, a training partner of Stubblety-Cook’s under Vince Raleigh in Brisbane.
Lello clocked a personal best of 2:10.95 as he closes in on the elusive 2:10 barrier with his push for an Olympic spot.
Wilson, who experienced a rollercoaster ride before winning a place on the 2021 Tokyo Olympic team, has been the subject of a five-part NSWIS Lights Up documentary, where he opened up on a career full of ups and downs, saying: “Swimming has taught me a lot in life, mainly about resilience and getting knocked down but always getting back up, never giving up.
“I think that's the biggest thing, no matter what you do, is never quitting on something that you love, no matter how hard it gets.”
And this 200m breaststroke field knows that Stubblety-Cook, the 2022 world champion, and the former world record holder will be the benchmark in the centre of the pool – the man who has swum four of the fastest six 200m breaststrokes in history – with a killer final 50m.
While Wilson’s teammate at SOPAC, Bradley Woodward, has the opportunity of a lifetime, hitting his straps at the Japanese Open last December, clocking what remains the fourth fastest time of the season with his 1:55.56 in the 200m Backstroke.
Twenty-five-year-old Woodward will be looking to get somewhere near that time to continue his push towards making his Olympic team debut in Paris in a field assembled here that includes three-time Olympian and former world champion Mitch Larkin (Chandler), Tokyo IM Olympian Se Bom Lee (SOPAC) and recently selected New Zealand Aqua Blacks Olympian Kane Follows.
The third SOPAC 25-year-old, Will Yang is slowly but surely returning to the kind of form which won him a place on the gold medal-winning 4x100m freestyle relay at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Yang won the 100m freestyle at the Victorian (48.52) and NSW (48.48) State Championships before finishing second to Kyle Chalmers in 48.20 at last month’s Australian Championships – as he continues his remarkable journey back from his 2023 back surgery to remove a benign tumour from his spinal cord.
“From my perspective things have changed a lot after what I went through last year and at the moment, I’m just happy to be healthy and enjoying the sport,” Yang said after his NSW Championship win.
“With my fitness I’m pretty much back to where I was and (regarding the Olympic Trials in June) I have some time, but there’s a long way to go.
“I am proud that I would not have let the surgery or any setbacks to frame who I am or my career, I think I’m tougher mentally than that.”
Yang will face off against his Birmingham relay teammate Flynn Southam (Bond), Temple and Kiwi Carter Swift while the women’s 100m freestyle will see the World Junior gold and silver medallists Olivia Wunsch alongside Bond’s Milla Jansen and Kiwi Olympians Fairweather and Laticia-Leigh Transom.
BUY SPECTATOR TICKETS FOR UNDER $10 HERE
