By Casey O'Connor
Stanthorpe swimmer Ben Armbruster has begun to pave a path to Paris following some scintillating performances this week at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Berlin.
Armbruster scored his first major international win on the final day of the three-day competition in Germany, taking out the 50 metre Butterfly in a time of 23.08secs.
Sharing second place on the podium were American Michael Andrew and Dylan Carter (Trinadad and Tobago). It was a sweet vitory for Armbruster after the American narrowly beat him in the final of the 100metre fly.
It has been a very successful start to the World championship series for Armbruster who finished a very close fourth in the final of the 50m backstroke on night two of the competition. Missing a podium finish by just 00.01.
Armbruster’s Stanthorpe-based family have had some long nights and very early mornings as they follow his progress.
Shannon, Armbruster’s mother said it has been worth losing some sleep to see the 21-year-old Bond University student reaping the rewards of years of hard work.
“We speak to him every day before and after he swims, and he has been really pleased with his times,” she said.
“He was very excited when he called home about 4am on Monday morning hours after his win in the 50metre fly.”
Armbruster has only recently returned to the water after being ordered out of the pool for almost two months by medical staff due to a significant rib injury.
Medical staff and his fitness trainers and coach are uncertain how he sustained the injury but believe it may have had something to do with his explosive technique at the start of his races.
“Since Ben returned from injury they have tweaked a few things with his technique at the start,” his mother said.
“It doesn’t seem to have affected his exceptional speed in the early stages of races, and his times are almost back to his PB.”
She said the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup caravan now moves on to Greece where the swimmers will compete in Athens over three days from the 13 to 15 October with the final leg in Budapest, Hungary from 20-22 October.
She said Ben is relishing the format of the racing with heats in the morning and finals at night and had plenty of support from the German crowd in Berlin.
“With a name like Armbruster what more would you expect,” she laughed
What you would not expect would be swimming against another Armbruster in the final of a World Cup. Lining up on the starting block was Luca Armbruster representing Germany. (Luca finished seventh in the race). After his win in the final Ben and Luca exchanged swim caps.
Heading to Athens, Armbruster is sitting sixth in the men’s standings.
Shannon said buoyed by his win, her son now has believes he belongs in this level of competition. She paid tribute to Ben’s coach of 14-year’s Gail Smail for the grounding she gave Ben in his formative years.
“Gail taught him to swim when he was four and trained him for the next 14 years,” she said.
“He has the utmost respect for Gail and still seeks her wise counsel. She did an amazing job with him in his early days to keep him involved when he may have doubted his ability.”
When this series of races finishes in a couple of weeks Ben will return to the Gold Coast and after a couple of days to recover from jet lag will be back into full training.
His family don’t expect to see much of him over the coming months.
There will be a regime of eat sleep train and some study in preparation for the State title, World Championships, the national titles, and Olympic trials before a place in the Dolphins squad to Paris is confirmed.
