Pine Wins World Title at 32

PSG Ambassador, Adam Pine wins World Title at the ripe old age of 32

PSG Ambassador and Veteran Adam Pine, clocked 22.78 to win the 50 metre butterfly and Australia has collected three other medals on the second last day of competition at the 9th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Manchester.

Last week’s victory was Pine’s first individual title at a major global meet in a career that has already spanned 16 years at the international level.

The night belonged to Pine, the 32-year-old father of two who works fulltime at Swimming Australia as the Sport Development Manager and trains under John Fowlie at the AIS.

Pine had broken the Commonwealth record on his way to the fastest qualifying spot in the 100m butterfly earlier in the week but was beaten in the final, winning the silver in a time slower than he had swum 24 hours before.

Pine again established a Commonwealth record on his way to the quickest semi final time but this time he would not be beaten, getting away well and powering off the halfway turn to surface with what turned out to be the winning lead.

The win was a triumph for perseverance for Pine, who several times, even as far back as 2002, had contemplated retirement from the sport that he continues to give so much to and he will now head to Beijing for his third Olympic Games in the best form of his amazing career.

Afterwards Pine was suitably pleased that he had finally cracked it for a big international win.  "It feels great, it feels good to finally win something at this level,” Pine told reporters.

“I've been in this sport for a long time and its just great to take advantage of these opportunities, you know, it's an Olympic year, everyone's swimming really fast and I'm just happy that I'm improving.

"Winning my first individual gold medal definitely makes it more special. I think it's going to be great to stand up on that podium tonight and see that flag and hear the national anthem and it's going up because I made it go up. It's just going to be something I'll remember forever."

The Lismore born sprinter said he didn’t know he had won until the race ended but knew he had prepared well for the short course meet with some intense underwater training.

"Only when my fingernails hit the wall did I think I’d won,” Pine said.

“They are bigger and stronger than me but I used a long stroke under water at the turn. Felicity (Galvez) and I trained together and we did a lot of work on dolphin kick and breathe control. We did a lot of 25m work under water, working on the speed and breathe control."

On Monday, Pine will return home to Canberra to his wife Sasha and boys Max and Buster, and of course work. Later in the winter he plans to return to Europe for more competition before the Olympics in August.

"I'm really excited about the Olympics. It's good to be in this situation, my times are improving and based on my form in this short course I'm looking to take even further chunks off my long course time and that'll make me a definite contender for that final at the Olympics. Once you are in the final anything can happen," Pine said.

Article by Swimming Australia.