Matt Wilson has won two individual silver medals in difficult conditions at the recent Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Hawaii.
The Springwood swimmer also anchored the 4x100m freestyle relay team which collected silver behind the Americans, and won a bronze medal with the 4x100m medley relay team.
“The conditions were very difficult at times with the heat and very strong winds making it even harder to swim fast times,” the 17-year-old said.
Matt couldn’t reproduce the stunning 200m breaststroke time he recorded at the Australian Swimming Championships in April. That time of 2.09.90 would have collected the gold in Hawaii.
Ippei Miyamoto of Japan won the race in 2.10.51, with Matt second in 2.11.33.
“I would have liked to have swum a bit faster but I did the best I could on the day and I'm very proud to represent Australia again and come away with two individual silvers and two relay medals.”
In the 100m breaststroke, Matt was just 0.37 seconds off his Australian age group record of 1.00.54, which he posted in July.
He actually led by two one-hundredths of a second at the turn but American Jacob Montague pulled away in the second half of the race, finishing with a winning time of 1.00.68 and leaving Wilson to take the silver in 1.00.91.
He is now having a short break from training to focus on finishing his HSC. He will then compete in the Australian Short Course Championships in November.
Matt, who was named Blue Mountains Sportsperson of the Year in January and was the 2015 NSW Institute of Sport Junior Athlete of the Year, has a long history with the Springwood Swimming Club.
