Maitland’s Abbey Harkin didn’t expect to be within striking distance of a Commonwealth Games spot, but now the 19-year-old will be giving it her best shot at this week’s Australian Swimming Championships.
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Harkin, raised at Louth Park but based in Brisbane for over two years, will be ranked third for nationals on the Gold Coast in the women’s 200 metre individual medley and is hoping to make the most of it.
She takes confidence out of being runner-up last month to three-time Olympian and multiple Australian record holder Emily Seebohm in the 200m IM by just 0.43 seconds at the Victorian Open Championships.
“The 200m medley is probably my biggest shot at making the team and my main event at the moment,” Harkin said.
”I was second at Vic states in January to Em Seebohm, which was pretty cool.
“Obviously being a home Games I knew they would take more people, so I thought I’d have a bigger crack at it.
“I’m ranked third so it’s going to be close, but it’s all come around pretty quickly and I didn’t really think at the start of the year I would be in this position.”
In order to warrant selection Harkin must record a podium finish in her pet event on Friday and clock a new personal best time to meet the minimum B-qualifying standard.
Her current individual mark is two minutes and 13.78 seconds with Perth’s Blair Evans (2:12.99) and Sunshine Coast’s Taylor McKeown (2:13.13) slightly ahead. Harkin said Melbourne top-seed Kotuku Ngawati (2:12.18) has withdrawn from the meet with injury.
Swimming Australia’s A and B qualifying times for that Gold Coast Commonwealth Games event are 2:10.45 and 2:13.41.
“They should take top three, but it just depends with timing as well,” Harkin said.
The former Australian age champion and national representative at last year’s World University Games will also contest the 200 and 100 metre breaststroke races on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
Harkin, who is studying business at Griffith University in the Queensland capital and training nearby at former senior high school St Peter’s Lutheran College, will be ranked seventh for both events with times of 2:30.40 and 1:09.52.
