Armbruster making the region proud
STANTHORPE swimmer Ben Armbruster has inspired pride and support right across the region this week with his performance on the Australian swimming team at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The 20-year-old competed in the men’s 50m backstroke final in the early hours of Tuesday morning and placed seventh overall with a time of 25.37 seconds, just over seven-tenths of a second behind race winner Andrew Jeffcoat of New Zealand.
The young gun seemed far from intimidated by the international stage, qualifying for the final with an impressive second place in his semi-final and third-fastest time heading into the final.
From watching Armbruster start swimming as a seven-year-old and experience huge success as a junior athlete before skyrocketing to the highest levels of the sport, former coach Gail Smail said she was incredibly proud of his performance so far this week.
“He went over there hoping for one good swim, and now here he is going in for his third. Everything on top of this is a bonus,” she said.
“He’s settling into it well. He was excited about being in the team, but he was nervous because he had never ever been away in a team environment before.
“This is a very new experience for him, but he’s thriving and loving it.”
The Stanthorpe-born swimmer has long been recognised as one of the state’s top up-and-coming talents and trains at Bond University as part of a high-performance squad under Chris Mooney, the top coach known for guiding Olympic medallists such as Kaylee McKeown to success.
Smail said she had always known Armbruster would be able to go a long way in the sport, with his natural talent backed by a fierce love of racing and competition.
“He’s more been targeted for the (2024) Paris Olympics, rather than these, so he’s doing really well.”
Armbruster was not alone in representing the Southern Downs at this year’s Commonwealth Games, with Scots PGC College alumni Demi Hayes and Stanthorpe’s Charlotte Caslick cocaptaining the gold medalwinning women’s Rugby Sevens team.