Success follows training with a world champion: Hansen
Jessica Hansen, an Australian swimmer, won silver in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Pan Pacific Championships after spending time in the United States training with Olympic champion Lilly King.
If you can’t defeat them, join them, as the old adage goes.
Jessica Hansen of Australia seems to be succeeding with this strategy, as seen by her performance at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old attributes her surprising silver medal performance in the 100-meter breaststroke on the first night of the four-day event to time spent practising with world and Olympic champion Lilly King in the United States.
Hansen, competing on Thursday, clocked a personal best of 1 minute, 6.20 seconds, placing him second in the finals, less than a second behind King, who holds the world record.
Remarkably, Hansen has rebounded from looking disheartened after finishing dead last in the same event at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April to looking confident and determined in her performance there.
The trip to Indiana for a two-week camp at the end of May was organised by coach Scott Talbot, son of former Dolphins coach Don, in an effort to inspire King’s charge.
Few would have thought it would have such a dramatic impact.
“I could say that I learnt a lot of stuff compared to her,” Hansen said of training with King.
“Most of what I picked up while abroad, though, was useful only to me.
“I put in a lot of practise time perfecting my pull. At the end of the race, I got on my arms and powered home, which ultimately won me the competition.”
It’s no surprise that Hansen has set her sights on King and would like to make another trip to Indiana before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It’s tough to get everyone’s schedules to mesh, but we’ll see what happens, she added.
Hansen was content for the time being to simply enjoy the spotlight.
She opined that “doing it at home is the easy part because you’re in your home environment, you’re comfortable, and you’ve got your coach around.”
“But I’m in Japan without my coach, and a lot of other things could go wrong.
In order to win the race, “you just have to stay with what you know and execute your race plan when the moment calls for it.”
Hansen will compete in the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday as well.