ELIJAH HAS THAT WINNING FEELING AGAIN

EXCITING Gold Coast teenager Elijah Winnington has put his hand up for the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo next month with a stunning breakthrough 400m freestyle swim in Adelaide.

The 18-year-old won relay gold in the 4x200m freestyle at this year’s Commonwealth Games but last night he staked another a claim for an individual swim against the might of the USA with a personal best time of 3:45.93 at the Pan Pac trials at the South Australian Aquatic and Leisure Centre.

The time was under the national team selection mark and the ninth fastest 400m by an Australian.

It followed his win in the 200m freestyle on night two when he held on to beat Commonwealth Games champion Kyle Chalmers in a thriller.

Winnington (Bond) last night led from go to whoa to leave Games golden boys Jack McLoughlin (Chandler) and Mack Horton (Melbourne Vicentre) in his wake. He swam away from McLoughlin (3:47.74) and Horton (3:52.74) who in fairness have already won pre-selection on the Dolphins team for Tokyo and are in heavy training for their Pan Pac tilt.

But in the Pan Pac format countries can enter as many swimmers as they like, with only the fastest two from any one country going through to swim the final, with the third fastest in the B final.

“I’m super happy with that; I wasn’t too sure coming into it how fast I could actually go,” said Winnington.

“I came off the back doing a PB at National Age only a few months ago and I just came in tonight and did the best I could do and made the A qualifying time so I’m pretty happy.

“My coach Richard Scarce and I always have a set race plan and I led all the way to the last 100m and that’s when you’ve got to give it all you can.

“I turned at the 300m mark pretty wrecked.”