By JARROD POTTER
SWIMMING dynamo Mitch Pratt is off to Dubai later this year to represent Australia.
Pratt, 17, from Cranbourne South, who swims for the Casey TigerSharks Swimming Club, will represent the Georgina Hope Swimmers Foundation Australian Swim Team at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai – from 26-31 August.
“It’s a tough team to make,” Pratt’s coach Ben Hiddlestone said. “It’s the next best crop of age group swimmers that we’ve got.
“Josh Beaver went on that team to Peru two years ago and this is the next time a TigerShark has made it.”
The standard of competition ramps right up for Pratt – with his Youth Olympics and national championship wins paling in comparison, a step up in competition calibre Hiddlestone believes Pratt can make.
“I think the time he swam at our age champs 1.57.6 – that will be hard to beat,” Hiddlestone said. “There might be a couple of Japanese kids who are quicker at that age, but there wouldn’t be many – he’d go in ranked top five.
“He’s ranked right up there – he’s not just heading over there for experience – we’re heading there to try and win this race and use that as a stepping stone for next year’sCommonwealth Games and Pan Pacs.”
Pratt will also have the advantage of his coach heading over there, with Hiddlestone selected as one of the team coaches for the championships.
The start to Pratt’s 2013 has been impressive, winning four medals won at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival in January before snaring gold at the National Age Championships in Adelaide last month in the 200-metre butterfly and 200m backstroke.
He finished fourth in his favoured 200m butterfly at the Swimming Australia National Championships held last week in Adelaide.
