Swimming: St Hildas pupil ends series in style

Dunedin swimmer Phoebe Williams finished the transtasman series on a high note by winning a silver medal in the 800m freestyle in Canberra at the weekend.

Williams (16), a pupil at St Hildas Collegiate, swam a personal-best short-course time of 8min 41.45sec, 3sec faster than the time she set in the first meeting of the series in Melbourne.

She was just 0.16sec behind winner Jessica Ashwood, from Australia.

This swim was worth 838 Fina points and would have ranked Williams 91st in the world based on the 2008-09 rankings.

This was a superb swim by a 16-year-old who is not expected to reach her peak for another five years.

Williams had two other top swims in Canberra, in the 400m freestyle and the 400m individual medley.

She won the bronze medal in the 400m freestyle in 4min 19.06sec.

This was slightly slower than the personal-best time of 4min 18.40sec she posted at the Melbourne meet.

Williams recorded a personal-best time in the 400m individual medley when she came fourth in 4min 55.37sec, fractionally faster than her time in Wodonga on Wednesday.

Williams ended the series with six personal-best times from her seven swims and won a silver and two bronze medals.

Three of her swims were worth 800 or more Fina points, which pleased her coach, Andy Adair.

"It was awesome swimming by Phoebe against the best young swimmers in Australia and New Zealand," he said.

 

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