Stubbins splashes into success

By Marc McGowan
HAILEYBURY Waterlions queen Kelly Stubbins can finally call herself a national champion after winning the 200m freestyle at last week’s Australian Short Course Championships.
Stubbins, 24, took almost a tenth of a second off her personal-best time, stopping the clock at 1:55.75 to finish more than a second clear of 15-year-old Queensland prodigy Ellen Fullerton.
“It’s very overdue, but obviously I’m pretty happy and I think I needed to do something like that to get myself back up again,” Stubbins said from the Waterlions’ annual training camp in Noosa.
Stubbins has endured an often tumultuous career in the pool, with plenty of highs, but also crippling lows.
The Belgrave South-based athlete won a relay gold medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and also pocketed relay medals at April’s Manchester World Short Course Championships.
But Stubbins suffered devastation at Australian Swimming Championships in March, missing out again on her dream of representing her country at an Olympic Games.
She hopes last Wednesday’s win will kick-start her campaign to compete at next year’s world championships in Italy.
Remarkably, Stubbins only had a seven-week preparation for the Australian Short Course Championships after struggling to recover mentally from the Australian Swimming Championships.
Waterlions head coach Wayne Lawes believes last week’s performance was a better indication of her ability than the Olympic trials.
“This was more of a reflection of what Kelly’s truly capable of,” Lawes said.
“She hasn’t fully tapped into her talent yet and she still has a lot more to give … it says a bucketload for her character.
“It just ratifies that she can do it and she needs to take it with two hands and run with it.”
Stubbins never considered retirement despite her immense disappointment.
“I think I was always going to get back in. I’m not ready to retire yet – I have more to give to the sport and if I was to retire, it would be premature,” she said.
Stubbins is now training 10 times a week – up from nine – and plans on incorporating more distance work into her program rather than the previous sprint focus.
But, time management will be a high priority as the biology university student plans on undertaking her honours next year.
“It’s good to have something else outside of swimming because if my life was just swimming I’d go mad,” Stubbins said.
Stubbins will compete at next month’s World Cup meeting in Singapore.