Palmer, Barratt in 200m freestyle final
Kylie Palmer spent most of the day reading, talking, playing games and putting negative swimming thoughts out of her mind.
Palmer was shattered at missing the final of the 400m freestyle early in the London 2012 aquatic meeting.
She was almost as equally disappointed by her heat swim in the 200m event.
Tonight the smile was starting to come back to Palmer’s face after she and fellow Australian Bronte Barratt advanced to tomorrow’s final of the four-lap race.
Palmer produced 1min. 57.44sec. in her semifinal several minutes after Barratt proved to be the fastest qualifier with 1:56.08.
It took some drastic steps earlier in the day for Palmer to get mentally prepared for what had been a struggle earlier in the day.
“I think today after the heat I just completely switched off and said I don’t really care how I go,” Palmer said.
“I don’t know, maybe it has worked a little bit. There was no point dwelling on my form because it would have only made it worse.
“Pretty much it was a case of what happens, happens. I’ll try to go into that mindset as well tomorrow night and try to pull out something a little better.”
In other events involving the Dolphins tonight Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:46.93) finished eighth in the final of the men’s 200m freestyle. The race continued France’s stronghold on freestyle events with Yannick Angel taking gold in 1:43.14.
South Australia’s Hayden Stoeckel (53.55s) was seventh in the 100m backstroke, the event in which he claimed a silver medal in Beijing. American Matt Greeves took the title this year with an Olympic record 52.16s.
