Dolphins Rocked By Injuries To Sam Williamson And Iona Anderson Before Australian World Championship Trials
Australia has lost Paris Olympians Sam Williamson and Iona Anderson from its prospective World Championship team for Singapore this year before a stroke has been swum at the Trials set down for the SA Aquatic And Leisure Centre in Adelaide next month.
In a body blow to the Dolphins, defending 50m breaststroke world champion Sam Williamson (kneecap) and world championship backstroke silver medallist Iona Anderson (back injury) have both been ruled out.
Australia’s Wide World Of Sports reported that Williamson could be sidelined for up to nine months after he suffered a ruptured patellar tendon – that connects the knee bone to the shinbone tibia) in a training accident.
TOUGH BREAK: Sam Williamson could be out for nine months. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).
The report said that the 27-year-old was warming up for a swimming session by doing a box jump off a run-up, among other exercises.
“To be honest, the pain was excruciating, but the pain didn’t really come anywhere near close to the immediate realisation that that was my season done and that was me done for the foreseeable future,” Williamson told Wide World of Sports.
“I had a trip booked to Europe — I was meant to be over in Europe this week competing — and I was also really looking forward to going to Singapore and defending my title as world champion. That’s something that I’d never had the opportunity to do.
“I was really starting to feel good about training again. I think coming off the back of Paris [the 2024 Olympics] and some less-than-favourable results, I had really struggled to find motivation in the water again … [but] in the three or four weeks before that [the injury] I had really started to remember why I love swimming and just how much I love swimming.
“So while the pain was excruciating — I don’t think anyone’s kneecap should try to head up towards their hip — it didn’t really hold a candle or hold a flame to the understanding that that was me done for the year.”
BACKSTROKING TWINS: Iona Anderson and Kaylee McKeown of Australia react after competing in the swimming 100m Backstroke Women Final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Defense Arena in Paris (France), July 30, 2024.
It has also been reported that Anderson, who won silver at the 2024 Doha World Championships, is managing a knee injury and won’t contest the Trials that will run between June 9 and 14.
Any news on Henry Allan and why he isn’t swimming at the trials as well ?