David Ferguson-Sharp displayed his fighting qualities at the Australian Age Swimming Championships to make five finals despite an interrupted lead-up.By Marc McGowan
HAILEYBURY Waterlion David Ferguson-Sharp defied ill health to qualify for five finals at the Australian Age Swimming Championships at Challenge Stadium Aquatic Centre in Western Australia last week.
Ferguson-Sharp, 16, emerged from the sport’s premier Australian junior event as the 100m freestyle champion in the 14 and 15-year-old age groups in the past two years.
Three weeks out from this year’s competition the talented teenager had similar expectations for his tilt at the 16-year-old bracket, but that is when things went awry.
Ferguson-Sharp developed a boil on his ear drum and was unable to train for the next two-and-a-half weeks.
He also lost six kilograms during the tumultuous period because he was unable to eat properly.
That would be enough to end most athletes’ campaigns, but, as Waterlions head coach Wayne Lawes attests, Ferguson-Sharp is no ordinary swimmer.
“He did a pretty good job considering where he was at,” Lawes said.
“He was really on fire, but he did get really sick and that hampered his preparation.
“I just felt he stood up and showed his potential. He will grow in stature and this will make him even more determined.”
Ferguson-Sharp bypassed the 400m freestyle final despite qualifying in seventh spot, but racked up individual fifth placings in the 100m and 200m freestyle, and a seventh in the 100m butterfly.
He also swam the anchor leg in Haileybury’s bronze medal-winning 4 x 100m freestyle team.
“A lot of the people he is competing against have finished growing, but he has more growing and a lot more filling out to do,” Lawes said.
“He has an enormous amount of potential as a racer and he’s a strong character.”
Ferguson-Sharp is well and truly on the Australian swimming radar and has already been selected in national youth teams.
After taking out the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle treble in his age group at January’s Victorian Long Course Swimming Championships, he doubled up in the same month at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.
Ferguson-Sharp subsequently pocketed a silver medal against international rivals as a member of the 4 x 100m freestyle relay team.
He has now earned a two-week break with his fellow Waterlion team-mates before taking aim at the Beijing Olympic Games trials in March.
It will hopefully be another step to qualification for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“We’ll have an individual debrief once they get back and we’ll sit down with goals and work out what time we think it is going to take to win in 2012,” Lawes said.
“A lot of people think about just making the team, but we’ll be looking at what it will take to win the 200m freestyle.”
