Greenbank swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan, aged 13, has ranked sixth in Australia for 50-metre backstroke at the Commonwealth Games trials this month.
O’Callaghan was the youngest swimmer to make the finals this year and competed against swimmers aged in the 20s and 30s in the opens trials.
She also swam in the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke events.
Waterworx swimming coach Paul Sansby said a consistent training program of nine to 10 training sessions a week culminated in an impressive outcome for O’Callaghan.
“She lowered her personal best time from 29.9 seconds to 29.22...she was the youngest girl there so it was a pretty solid effort,” Sansby said.
“In the 200-metre backstroke she started out faster than she should have and would have thought she could have broken a world record.
“She had a quick reality check with two laps to go.”
O’Callaghan competed at the school age championship at Chandler this week and achieved positive results in backstroke and freestyle.
She is en route to Sydney for the Australian Age Nationals Championship in Sydney on April 21 and will compete at the Adelaide Pan Pacific trials in June.
Coach Sansby said O’Callaghan had the ability to achieve greatness if she continues her current trajectory.
“I would like to see her keep going and break a world record,” he said.
“There are a heap of kids that have that potential, it is just a matter of whether they go on with it. Lots of things happen between the age of 13 and 18.”
