Australian Trials, Day 1 Finals: Rising Star Alex Perkins Sizzles To Second In The World with her 56.42 In The 100m Butterfly
One of Australian swimming’s rising stars, Alex Perkins has swum her way onto this year’s World Championship Swim Team for Singapore, clocking the second fastest time in the world this year – a time only bettered by world record holder Gretchen Walsh (56.42).
The 24-year-old Paris Olympian from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast clocked 56.42 – following her 56.78 in this morning’s heats – to move from 11th to second in two swims in one day.
Second placed Lily Price (Rackley Swim Team, QLD) also booked her place on her first World Championship Team with her time of 57.82 with Bella Grant (Trinity Grammar, NSW) 58.26 third.
Perkins, who is now coached by Michael Sage at USC Spartans, said “her 56 “was a long time coming.
“I’ve worked really hard since the Olympics, just to fine tune all of those little things. So, I couldn’t be happier with that,” said Perkins.
“It’s been a really good change since the Olympics, it’s always tough with a new coach, but you have to trust the process. I think we work really well together and I’m able to communicate with him.”
Price said qualifying was such a relief.
“I wanted to go a bit quicker than that but it’s such a relief that I’m on the team, back to training and hopefully go faster,” said Price, who was asked by four-time Olympic great Cate Campbell on pool deck about her nerves when coming out behind the blocks.
“Honestly (my nerves) were not as bad as I thought they would be, I was very, very nervous last year at the Olympic trials, I’ve been trying to work really hard on that. I knew I could do the time I just had to put it together tonight”
more to come…
