Pallister Joins The Sub-4-Min 400 Free Club In 3:59.72
"What we have at St Peter’s is something really special, and I’m really lucky that I get to be a part of that now. I saw a quote once saying that ‘water carries energy’ and the energy that comes out of that St Peter’s pool is electrifying.” - Lani Pallister
The following is a Swimming Australia press release on day 2 action at Adelaide national Trials for the World Championships. Craig Lord is away celebrating his and his wife's Silver Wedding Anniversary. 🍾🥂
Women’s 400m Freestyle:
With godmother Dawn Fraser looking on, Lani Pallister smoked to victory in the 400m – her 3:59.72 being waved on by new coach Dean Boxall pacing the side of the pool.
SOS: Where the swim fits on the back of Summer McIntosh's 3:54.18 World record at Canadian Trials in Victoria:
Craig Lord
Pallister swum three seconds quicker than the time she clocked at April’s national titles, posting a huge PB to easily go under the qualifying time while St Peters teammate Jamie Perkins was also impressive in 4:04.03.
Pallister said:
“I think I’ve been questioning for the past week whether I had sub four in the bank. Dean (Boxall) said it wasn’t about cracking 4min it was just about executing the race plan. I could see him and my mum on the last 50m pushing me and I did not want to kick my legs whatsoever, but that’s all he’s been hounding into me for the past 10 weeks since being at St Peters.”
“Moving to St Peters was more about having a group of distance swimmers to train with. Swimmers like Jamie (Perkins) who was in the Olympic final last year for the 400m (freestyle), Elijah Winnington who medalled last year, Ben Goedemans has now cracked 15 minutes (in the 1500m freestyle) … so there’s a nice group that do distance.
“So for me, it was just about having someone to chase up and down and challenge me every day, as Jamie does, and having a group of people that make me happy, and I think that’s been the biggest difference. Is I’m just thrilled going into the pool every day and just having 21 friends on pool deck with me.
“I’ve seen a different side of Dean that I never saw as an outside athlete before, and you guys see how passionate he is when we’re racing. But I think what we have at St Peter’s is something really special, and I’m really lucky that I get to be a part of that now. I saw a quote once saying that ‘water carries energy’ and the energy that comes out of that St Peter’s pool is electrifying.”
Perkins added: “Summer’s (world record) time is pretty inspiring. I mean for what Katie (Ledecky) has done over the past over a decade now is incredible. To see someone else stepping up and doing that is good for us, to show that it’s possible.”
“First job is to make the team. You never know what’s going to happen and there’s so many obstacles to overcome during a prep. So step one’s done now and we have five weeks until Singapore.”
Also On Day 1:
Craig Lord
