Zimmer preparing for trials

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TAYLIAH Zimmer says she has become a different swimmer since experiencing her first World Swimming Championships in Montreal earlier this month.

The former Koroit backstroke star and national 200m champion returned home to the south-west this week after winning the backstroke hat-trick at the Australian Shortcourse Championships in Melbourne which ended late last week.

The three wins in the 50m, 100m and 200m, all just milliseconds outside national record times, secured her a position on the Australian shortcourse team for the world titles next year.

But it’s her experiences in Montreal that she hopes to use as a stepping stone towards international recognition.

Zimmer finished 14th in the 200m backstroke in Canada, but she admitted that semi-final nerves had taken their toll.

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Zimmer swam more than a second outside her best in the semi.

“I was on track for a 2.11 in the lead-in to the world championships,” she said. “I’d gone through the heat all right, I’d qualified for the semi in seventh position.

“The nerves just got a hold of me in the semi-final, I swam a shocker. These are the things you learn from though.

“Petria Thomas was fantastic with me afterwards, she just said to me not to worry about it, it happens to everyone at their first worlds.”

Zimmer said she has now had a glimpse of world-standard competition and liked what she had seen.

“Something’s changed in me,” she said. “I feel as though I’ve come back a completely different swimmer.

“There were 14 rookies on the team and we’ve all become very close, it feels as though there is a new wave of swimmers coming through. The girls won something like 10 of the 13 gold medals. The girls have arrived, we’re just waiting on the new wave of boys to come through now.'’

Zimmer said the opportunity to meet, learn from and spend time with Australian swimming legend and multiple Olympic and world titles gold medallist Grant Hackett was an experience she would never forget.

The former Koroit swimmer said she would take the next three weeks off before preparing for the Australian championships next January, which will also be selection trials for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next March.

“I’ve still got to do plenty of the fitness work, but I’ve got three weeks away from the pool now,” Zimmer said.

“It’s going to be a big campaign from here on towards the Commonwealth Games. My goal for the Commonwealth Games is to definitely get a medal.”

Zimmer said she had been rapt with her form at the national shortcourse titles despite not feeling at her peak.

“I felt as though everything was wrong with me,” she said.

“I had a neck problem, then a back, then my hips. We only had one day to recover from jet lag and it was straight back into it. There were people trying to break world records at the shortcourse championships, it was full on from the start.'’

Zimmer missed the Australian record for the 50m by just .06 of a second and her own national record in the 200m by only .04.

She said she was encouraged by the performances of fellow south-west swimmers Chelsea Maddock and Georgia Johnstone who also competed at the national event.