Young freestyle swimmer Amanda Pascoe
beat Haley Lewis in the national championships 1500m race last week and is now ranked
sixth fastest in the world.
In a time of 16min 28.85s, the Greenfield Park 16-year-old swam the race of her life at the Australian
Swimming Championships at the Hobart Aquatic Centre last week.
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By Emily Tinson
Her father Kevin Pascoe, who was
at poolside, was overflowing with pride.
"They talk about her now in Australian swimming
as the distance freestyle swimmer Australia's
been looking for," he said.
The 1500m race against Lewis
was always going to
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be a big one, coming off a win of 8min 39s in the 800m
freestyle earlier in the week, (a personal best which
put her in the top 10 in Australia).
"She was a bit scared going against Haylet, but she
was delighted with her performance and felt good at
the end of it," Kevin said.
Amanda used to swim at Smithfield Swimming Club.
Since a glandular fever
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attack last year which forced her out of the Olympics,
she joined the Campbelltown Amatuer Swimming Club
where she is trained by Alan Thompson.
Thompson was the team manager of the Olympic team.
Amanda's mother Wendy Pascoe, who had to stay in
Sydney during the meet, said her daughter was ecstatic
at shaving four and a half
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seconds off her 800m time.
"Her ambition is to make it into the Australian open team
and travel to places with people like Ian Thorpe
and Michael Klim," Wendy said.
Amanda attends
Westfields Sports High and trains two, two hour sessions a day.
She will fly to Japan in July for an international swimming competition.
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