By Tania Phillips
He did it!
Stanthorpe’s own Ben Armbruster is on his way to Paris after a scintillating personal best in the 50m freestyle at the Olympic trials in Brisbane tonight.
Armbruster finished in second behind seasoned 50m freestyle champion Cameron McEvoy to book his ticket to his first Olympics while McEvoy, 30, made history by qualifying for his fourth games.
His time of 21.84 was a personal best – 0.04 seconds under the qualifying time of 21.88.
Armbruster had signalled his intentions this morning in the heat, where he swam a 21.91 – a new PB and the first time the young Bond University student had ever swam under 22 seconds in competition.
With 44 days to the Olympics and with his mum, dad and sister all in the stands to watch the 22 sat on the shoulder of the experience McEvoy for the entire 50 metres.
After the race he was clearly excited to achieve his Olympic dream and honoured to be sharing the experience with Australia’s 50m king McEvoy.
“I can’t believe it,” he told Channel Nine after the race.
“I don’t know what to say, I cannot wait. Going with this legend,” he added motioning to McEvoy. “I can’t wait to learn as much from him, be a sponge, soak everything up and have a crack.”
Despite Australia’s illustrious performances in the pool, we have never medalled in the men’s 50 metre at the Olympics.
McEvoy told Channel Nine he hoped that they could change that statistic in Paris.
“I’ve been to three (Olympics) before, I’ve got three bronze, all in relays I’d like to get an individual medal, that would be cool, a cool stat to break,” he said.
Armbruster’s trial campaign hasn’t finished yet, with the rising star, set to swim again on Saturday in the 100m butterfly.
On Monday Ben’s mum Shannon Armbruster told Stanthorpe Today/Warwick Today her son was calm going into the event.
“He’s knows what he’s got to do and he knows what times he’s got to do, he’s just got to get his hand on the wall fast. They only take the first two, except for the 100m free and 200m free. It’s pretty cut-throat they only take a team of 40.”
