Ellie Cole won three medals and broke a world record at this week’s Australian Short Couse Championships in Hobart. Picture: Stewart ChambersBy Marc McGowan
PARALYMPIAN Ellie Cole broke the world record in the 200m individual medley multi-disability event at the Australian Short Course Championships in Hobart on Sunday night.
The Casey TigerSharks star won bronze in the race, claiming the S9 classification record in the process.
Placings in multi-disability events are calculated on swimmers’ times in relation to the percentage of the world record in their respective classification.
Cole, 17, who had her right leg amputated as a three-year-old due to a cancer battle, also picked up silver medals in the 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke.
She also qualified first and fourth for last night’s 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly finals respectively. Her finals results were not available when the News went to press.
Teenage distance specialist Stephanie Demestichas, 14, was also preparing for a big night in the pool as one of six competitors in the 1500m freestyle.
Sixteen-year-old Dylan Warren shaved almost nine seconds off his personal-best time in clocking an impressive 15:43.26 in the men’s 1500m yesterday.
Warren placed 11th in the 800m freestyle on Saturday. Fellow 16-year-olds Josh Beaver and Aleysha Tokai and 19-year-old Brad York also enjoyed strong performances over the five-day meet.
TigerSharks head coach Ben Hiddlestone described Cole as ‘a special kid’. “Ellie’s been doing this for a while at her previous club Kings,” Hiddlestone said.
“It’s a lot more exciting for us to come back every night and actually have someone doing finals because my able-bodied guys aren’t making finals every night, like national age, so having Ellie here and making finals every night is a big boost.”
But Hiddlestone said the meet was more about experience for most of his swimmers.
“Kids go to the national age championships and get nervous and don’t swim well,” he said.
“But if you’ve been to national open championships … with world record-holders and the elite of the elite you go back to the national age championships and your perspective changes and you’re not so nervous any more.
“I’ve had the guys up here every night watching the finals, counting strokes and checking what they split in because the best swimmers we’ve got to look to are Brad York and Craig Watson.
“They’re not world-class yet so you come here to watch world-class swimming and … they’re trying to absorb as much and glean as much information and experience as possible from it.”
