Emerging sprinter Shayna Jack says training with the Campbell sisters is helping her improve

EMERGING sprinter Shayna Jack doesn’t have to look far to know what it takes to catch the best 100m freestyle swimmers in the world because they’re in the next lane every day at training.

Shayna Jack won four medals as part of relay teams at this year’s swimming world championships. Picture: Glenn Hunt.

EMERGING sprinter Shayna Jack doesn’t have to look far to know what it takes to catch the best 100m freestyle swimmers in the world because they’re in the next lane every day at training.

The 18-year-old trains with the Campbell sisters Bronte and Cate at the Commercial Swimming Club in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and after a breakout performance at this year’s world championships has her sights set on big things.

Jack won four medals - two silver and two bronze - as part of four relay teams in Budapest in July and is now gearing up to race the national short course titles in Adelaide this week.

“It’s great having those training partners because I can see where I’m at, they are some of the best in the world so it pushes me to be better,” Jack said.

“I look at the way they train, the way they recover, and it teaches me a lot.

“It’s all friendly, at times we focus a lot more and I’ll sometimes try to beat them at training or the end of a session but it’s all fun and when we’re behind the blocks it’s serious, focus on your own race.”

Her longer term goal is next year’s Commonwealth Games trials where she will swim the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle.

“My goal is to mainly get an individual spot for the 50m and 100m freestyle, it would be good to make a bit of a move in that as they take top three,” she said.

Jack said she took a lot of confidence out of this year’s world championships because she had been able to perform with a less than ideal preparation due to illness.

“It was a similar virus to glandular (fever) so I only had two weeks of training before I left but we just tried to keep my mental confidence up which really helped in the end,” she said.

“I was happy with my performance and it makes me confident that if that’s what I was like after that (preparation) then the future looks good.

“I managed to swim a few relays and hold my times consistently, it wasn’t PBs but it was still a world-level time.

“So when I’m fit and healthy and have everything going to plan we don’t know what I can do, we’ll have to wait and see.”

The 2017 national short course swimming championships will be held at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre from October 26-28.

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Originally published as Emerging sprinter Shayna Jack says training with the Campbell sisters is helping her improve