Hawkesbury swimmer Wally Eggleton has fallen just short of his dream of qualifying for the London Olympics after fading in to finish fifth in tonight’s (Thursday night’s) 1500m mens freestyle final at the 2012 Australian Swimming Championships and Olympic trials held in Adelaide.
Eggleton finished fifth, swimming a time of 15 minutes 24.54 seconds to narrowly fail to qualify for the Australian team to go to the 2012 London Olympics
Eggleton, 19, was up on the pace early on, but gradually kept falling behind in the race which was eventually won by Jarrod Poort in a time of 15.13.38, only 2.55 seconds outside the automatic Olympic A qualifying time.
Poort, from the Wests Illawarra club will now have to wait until June 26 to see if his Olympic B qualifying time will be enough to get him entry in the Games.
Eggleton had entered the final after finishing fourth in the only heat on Wednesday, swimming a time of 15:34.17.
Going into the heat he had been seeded number one after swimming a time of 15:19.13, which was 7.3 seconds outside the Olympic A qualifying time of 15:11.83, but was the fastest this year until tonight’s final.
Eggleton is the reigning Hawkesbury Sportsperson of the Year and has been training in Miami, Queensland.