Teenager Jury Earns swim spot for World Championships

North Shore teenager Alannah Jury has earned selection to the world championships after an outstanding third place in the 10km Australian Open Water Swim Championships at Penrith near Sydney today.

Jury, 17, in her first full season in open water swimming, finished runner-up in both the 5km and 10km titles at the national championships last month.

Jury had to recover from some overly aggressive tactics from some of the Australians in the 10km race which was the world championship selection race for both countries.

Two Australians were given yellow card warnings after swimming over the young kiwi just before the start of the final lap. She had to stop and recover, before showing excellent tenacity to catch the pack and ultimately outkick most of them for third place.

Australian Melissa Gorman, 15th in the open water swim at the Beijing Olympics, took out the title after former New Zealander Kate Brookes-Peterson withdrew with a stomach upset. Gorman won in 2:00:40, which 1min 40sec clear of compatriot Danielle DeFrancesco with Jury only six seconds further back in third.

She finished clear of Australian Stacey Hansford, runner-up in last year’s Oceania Championships at Rotorua.

A top-four finish was required to earn automatic selection for July’s FINA world championships in Italy.

Swimming New Zealand Distance and Open Water Programme Manager, Philip Rush was delighted with the performance.

“Alannah was quite outstanding. It was a beautiful swim from her today,” Rush said.

“The women’s field was very classy and Alannah showed she has learned a lot in a short time. She showed real courage to come back after getting clobbered with only a lap to go. She hung in there and fought really well.”

Rush said that Jury had come on strongly this year under her coach Gary Francis at North Shore as well as working in collaboration with Philip Ryan’s coach Judith Wright.

They had worked with Jury on slip-streaming during the week and she swam well to the game plan.

Wellington’s Kirsten Cameron, the national champion, finished 16th.

Meanwhile Ryan (Waterhole) was the best of the men finishing sixth just ahead of former Oceania champion Kane Radford (Aquatx Rotorua).

Ryan (Waterhole) showed some aggression after two slow laps, pushing to the lead to force the pace.

Radford, who is studying under scholarship in the USA, dropped off the leaders with one lap remaining as Trent Grimsey edged clear to win in 1:54:46.

Fellow Australians filled the next four places with Ryan sixth in 1:55:23 and Radford a further 22 seconds back in seventh.

“It was a big effort from Phillip and clearly his best effort at this level. The pace was pretty slow early on and I was delighted that he took the initiative to force the pace. He was only 10 seconds off the podium and that was really pleasing.”

He finished just seven seconds outside the selection criteria to be within 30 seconds of the winner if out of the top four, and Rush will take his case to the national selectors for consideration.

Wellington’s Casey Glover (SwimZone) finished 11th.

Results, Australian open Water Swim Championships, 10km, Penrith, (All Australia unless stated):
Elite men: Trent Grimsey 1:54:46, 1; Rhys Mainstone 1:55:09, 2; Brendan Capell 1:55:13.22, 3; David Browne 1:55:13.89, 4; Jarrod Killey 1:55:22, 5; Phillip Ryan (Waterhole, NZL) 1:55:23, 6; Kane Radford (Aquatx, NZL) 1:55:45, 7. Also Casey Glover (SwimZone, NZL) 1:56:58, 11.

Elite women: Melissa Gorman 2:00:40, 1; Danielle DeFrancesco 2:02:04, 2; Alannah Jury (North Shore, NZL) 2:02:10, 3; Stacey Hansford 2:02:22, 4. Also Kirsten Cameron (Ace, NZL) 2:12:54, 16.