2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Live results
A surprise withdrawal from one of Australia’s premier women’s sprint freestylers has come just days out from the start of swimming at the 2019 FINA World Championships.
20-year-old Shayna Jack of St. Peters Western announced via Instagram today, July 14th, that she is withdrawing from the world’s largest aquatic competition outside of the Olympic Games due to personal reasons.
Jack had a remarkable Aussie World Trials last month, putting up personal bests across the sprint events to stake her claim on the women’s 4x200m free and 4x100m free relay. Jack collected a 200m free time of 1:56.37 for bronze in Brisbane, while also nailing a time of 53.18 for 4th in the historic women’s 100m free final that was faster than the Rio Olympic final.
Jack also finished 5th in the 50m free at those Trials with a PB of 24.78.
The St. Peters Western star has been at training camp in Nagaoka, Japan, seemingly with full intention of competing in Gwangju.
The relay impact is potentially huge, with the Aussies favored to win the 4x100m freestyle relay. Their combined times of the top 4 females at Trials was close to the World Record. Jack’s 200m free individual outing at World Trials also put her in the 4x200m relay as well.
In her absence, the Aussies still have a powerhouse arsenal of Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell and Emma McKeon, but the 4th leg of the 4x100m free relay is now up in the air.
Madi Wilson put up the 5th fastest 100m free time at Trials in 53.60, marking the Marion swimmer’s first outing ever under the 54-second threshold.
Western Australia’s Brianna Throssell has also been making major waves in her freestyle events. She qualified individually for Gwangju in the 100 fly, but put up 54.25 for 6th in the women’s 100m free final and already will be a strong member of the 4x200m with her individual PB of 1:56.62 in that event.
Leah Neale is another veteran relay utility player who will be in Gwangju and may be called upon to race in Jack’s absence.
Injury? Or WADA?
Failed drug test. Just released.
Starting to feel like kazan 4 years ago 🤔🤔🤔
Think Australia won a few gold there
like 7
You picked a fine time to leave me , Lucille
With 4 hungry children & a crop in the field,.
Great chance for Madi though. & that song has 30 unique lines . Its like Tolstoy ..
Why are prayers and well-wishes being provided for this “surprise withdrawal”? With all respect for Miss Jack’s privacy, in this day and age of doping violations and prior AUS team problems, don’t we need just a little bit more to go on than the vague “personal reasons” before expressing empathy, sadness, prayers? There should at least be specificity as to whether it is a family event, non-doping medical event, or team/meet/doping rule violation. At very least, this public disclosure is owed for sake of AUS Dolphins and its supporters, if not owed to other nations’ teams.
Tough crowd…..gee. Leave her be and I’m sure we will hear.
Actually agree with Perth that a more transparency is needed here. No one publicly at least has a clue as to what is going on, whether a systemic medical (virus? measles? mumps?) or other issue (such as doping) is occurring on Australian team. This lack of transparency around (possible) medical issues has caused problems for Olympic sports lately. Furthermore, the Aus team has not been without its drama in the past (for example, the infamous sleeping pill abuses in 2012). Other athletes at World Championships have a right to know in order to protect their own health.
Sorry but they have no such right at all.
Yeah, that was my first thought, too — said no one ever.
If this is indeed a “shock withdrawal”, it is almost comical that folks are more concerned about its impact on two relays than they are about what it reflects about the Australian team and possible health issues for other athletes. Has anyone heard about the Nassar case and what happened when info was not communicated properly?
Given she is a relay only swimmer, in the top 4 for both the 100 and 200 free it’s not hugely shocking that the talk of her withdrawal is about the impact on the relays!
If a big name from Russia or China withdrew surprisingly, the comment section will be totally different.
I think it’s highky likely that something has happened within Shaynas family. That’s how her IG post comes across. She and Swimming Aus will address when they’re ready. A lot of soapbox ppl here.
Like when Kliment scratched the 2 back and no one cared
I think It’s clearly stated that Kolesnikov had a shoulder injury.
Besides, Kolesnikov withdrew timely enough to let his teammate fill his vacancy.
Or when Yulia stole the 200br spot from the 14 year old? Maybe 3 Americans cared. Okay if that happened here you would get 200 comments about how corrupt it was. So it is a lot different here just not how you think it is.
They are not the same kind of story. Even in Ms. Efimova’s story, the Russian Swim Federation gave an explanation on their decision to substitute Efimova for the girl, although the explanation was very absurd. If we have to make comparisons, Shayna Jack’s case reminds me more of Sun’s withdrawal from 1500 in 2015. Both are sudden and unexplained.
I know people from countries like US/AUS lay more emphasis on personal privacy, but I don’t think it’s so difficult to at least point out whether It’s a family issue, health issue or something else.
Imagine Efimova announced she will withdraw from the WC TODAY and didn’t say anything but citing ‘personal’ issues, I don’t think only 3 people will care.
Probably wants to get home safe and sound with her family before releasing more information. This comment thread is crazy.
It’s sad that Shayna won’t be there, but luckily Australia has a cadre of sprint freestylers at their disposal. Wilson is on the up and rapidly improving and is hungry to make that relay for Tokyo, and I feel like she is poised to take off. I don’t see this having a huge impact on what the relays can do.
Wishing her well, love to her & her family.
Oh no ! Poor Shayna .
Hope that whatever the issue is, that it is temporary rather than long term and best wishes to her in any case.
Slightly weakens the AUS 4X100 but despite her quality, she is only “4th seed” in their peak/finals line-up. She was most likely going to be lead-off leg and her PBs have been inching down closer to 53flat but if Wilson swims to her Trials times (53.6) then the “drop-off” is only in the region of 0,5sec and the gap to USA is in the region of 3/4 times that. It WILL mean that C1 will probably swim the heats with the heats line-up being C1, C2, Wilson & Throssell with McKeon coming in for the final in… Read more »
You should say the gap to the USA is three or four times that not three fourths times that. It took me a while to figure out that you meant 3/4 as three or four not three fourths.