Shayna Jack qualifies for 2022 Commonwealth Games, World Swimming Championships

‘We are going to dominate’ — With those words, Shayna Jack issued a huge warning to world swimming after an emotion-charged return to the pool.

Jack is set to complete her redemption after spending two years out of the pool while banned from competing. Picture: Getty Images.

This time, Shayna Jack’s tears were just pure joy.

Three years later than she planned, Jack is finally off to the world swimming championships.

Banished from the last world titles after failing a doping test at a training camp that saw her banned for two years, the 23-year-old Queenslander has earned herself another shot at the big time after a blistering performance at the national championships on Wednesday.

Against a red hot field, Jack finished second in the women’s 100m freestyle in a career best time of 52.60 seconds to qualify for the world championships in Budapest and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“I am just overwhelmed with emotions to be back on the team,” she said.

“I have made my point but I will continue to be fighting back and doing what I do best, which is racing, all the way through to Paris.”

“I really can‘t even put it into words for you, I guess not many people really know what I actually went through, the depths of it, and to be back and wearing those colours again means more than anything to me.

“I can‘t thank all the people in my inner circle who got me through that and got me back to swimming, my goal was to love swimming and fall back in love with it again and I have and I am really proud to be back.”

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Shayna Jack has produced a career best swim to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and World Swim Championships. Picture: Getty Images.

Jack has been to hell and back since she tested positive in 2019 to ligandrol. She has always maintained her innocence but fought a long and expensive legal battle that still resulted in her copping a suspension.

She had been a star on the rise before her world turned upside down but by finishing second behind her teenage teammate Mollie O’Callaghan she is back and has earned herself a spot in the blue-riband sprint plus the Australian relay which is heavily tipped to win gold.

“I am stronger, I am fitter and faster which I just proved and I think is just the beginning for me so I really look forward to it,” she said.

“I haven‘t been able to be an individual swimmer on the world stage so to be able to do that with Mollie … we are going to dominate, we are a weapon to be scared of.”

Just 18, O’Callaghan stamped herself as the next big thing in Australian swimming after winning in 52.49 seconds – the fastest time in the world this year – and fast enough to have won her the bronze medal at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Mack Horton regained his place in the Australian swim team in his favourite event after a gutsy performance in the men’s 400m freestyle.

The Olympic gold medallist in 2016, Horton was prevented from defending his crown in Tokyo after finishing third at the 2021 trials but steamed home on the last lap to finish second behind Elijah Winnington on Wednesday and seal his spot for Budapest and Birmingham.

“I think it was a confidence boosting swim,” Horton said.

“There was always that question mark, how‘s it going to work out? It’s probably the most comfortable I’ve felt in a race for a while.”

Jack is set to complete her redemption after spending two years out of the pool while banned from competing. Picture: Getty Images.

Winnington was also feeling relieved after he went to Tokyo ranked number one in the world only to finish seventh in the final. His winning time of Wednesday (3:43.10) would have won him the Olympic gold.

“It‘s a race that I have been very nervous for coming back. It’s my first big race, really, since Tokyo. I knew where I was physically, but I wasn’t sure how my mind was going to go,” Winnington said.

“The last real 400m I did was the one in Tokyo, which I kind of walked away from very disappointed, as you can imagine. So to put a swim together like that, I‘m actually really pleased.

“I‘ve had months and months of psychological sessions, just reflective sessions and even like, really positively trying to reflect on Tokyo and seeing all the advantages I got from that outcome, although it may not have been the result that I wanted.

“I can say that I‘m still growing and I’m still learning. That swim is only half a second of what I did at Olympic trials, which was a massive swim for me.

“So I‘m actually really pleased with that and I’ll take this as a learning block. I’ve got another month until the world championships. There’s some more fast guys that I think I’m really going to be going into these next international meets with a lot of pressure off my back.”

In Wednesday’s other finals:

Lani Pallister, the daughter of former Commonwealth Games champion Janelle Elford, won the women’s 800m in 8:17.77. That time would have won her a bronze medal in Tokyo behind Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus.

Titmus is skipping the world titles so did not enter the 800m on Wednesday but finished fifth in the 100m to earn herself a spot on the relay for Birmingham.

Mitch Larkin finished second in the 200m backstroke behind teenager Joshua Edwards-Smith to qualify for his third Commonwealth Games.

Jenna Strauch won the women’s 100m breaststroke final ahead of Abbey Harkin. Olympic relay gold medallist Chelsea Hodges was third.

Thomas Nowakowski won the 50m freestyle in 21.86 ahead of Grayson Bell.