Australian Swimming will be sending a team of 20 athletes to the 11th instalment of the Oceania Championships in Suva, Fiji from June 21-26th.
Australian wimmers who have earned gold at the championships in the past include 2016 Olympic team members Mitch Larkin, Madeline Groves, Brianna Throssell and Kyle Chalmers.
The athletes were selected from either the finals at the 2016 Georgina Hope Swimmers Foundation Australian Age Championships or any of their performances, prelims, semi-finals and finals, at the 2016 Australian Championships.
Only junior age athletes who will not be attending either the Olympic Games or the Junior Pan Pacific Championships were eligible for the team.
This year’s team will include five athletes from the The Southport School (TSS) Aquatics. The swimmers include Alessandra Colombini, Bianca Crisp, Alice Stuart, Lachlan Colquhoun and Jake Kersten.
TSS Aquatics, who is led by High Performance Coach Chris Nesbitt, finished second to St. Peters Western at this year’s Australian Age Group Championships. St. Peters Western placed Acacia Wildin-Snedden, Bryan Johan Poon and Cameron Jones.
The powerhouse team from Brisbane, who is coached by Michael Bohl and Dean Boxall, also placed three athletes on the Junior Pan Pacific Championships team and seven athletes on the Olympic team.
The team will be led by Olympian and Commonwealth Games Champion swimmer Martin Roberts with multiple Olympic Gold Medal winning Coach Tracey Menzies,appointed as the head coach.
The full team includes:
MEN
- Jack Brazier (Kawana Waters, QLD)
- Lachlan Colquhoun (TSS Aquatics, QLD)
- Caiden Gill (Traralgon, VIC)
- Zac Incerti (UWA West Coast, WA)
- Bryan Johan Poon (St Peters Western, QLD)
- Cameron Jones (St Peters Western, QLD)
- Jake Kersten (TSS Aquatics, QLD)
- Zac Stubblety-Cook (East Brisbane, QLD)
- Thomas Wotton (Playford Aquatic, SA)
- Nathan Zhu (Trinity Grammar, NSW)
WOMEN
- Alessandra Colombini (TSS Aquatics, QLD)
- Mikaela Cornelissen (Traralgon, VIC)
- Bianca Crisp (TSS Aquatics, QLD)
- Bec Cross (Ginninderra, ACT)
- Abby Duncan (Norwood, SA)
- Hadley Lindsay (UWA West Coast, WA)
- Natasha Ramsden (Abbotsleigh, NSW)
- Alice Stuart (TSS Aquatics, QLD)
- Kara Svenson (Plane Creek and District, QLD)
- Acacia Wildin-Snedden (St Peters Western, QLD)