Lani Pallister Adds Fifth Lorne Pier To Pub Crown Doing It Her Way En-Route To Paris Olympic Trials

 Lani Pallister Adds Fifth Lorne Pier To Pub Crown Doing It Her Way En-Route To Paris Olympic Trials

Australia’s best all-round female freestyler, Paris Olympic hopeful Lani Pallister has added a fifth consecutive Powercor Lorne Pier to Pub open water swimming crown in a growing list of achievements for the unstoppable “Water woman!”

Pallister, the 21-year-old Queenslander, is pushing full-steam ahead towards the Australian Olympic Trials in Brisbane (June 10-15) where she will contest the 200, 400, 800 and 1500m freestyle.

The girl from the Gold Coast’s Griffith University HP program under master coach Michael Bohl is currently ranked the second Australian over 400m and 800m behind Olympic and World champion Arirane Titmus  and second behind Madeleine Gough in the 1500m – enjoying a triumphant record-breaking World Cup campaign over 800 and 1500m towards the end of last year.

It follows her pair of bronze medals over 1500m at the 2022 World’s and the 800m at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and her four-gold medal haul at the 2022 World Short Course in Melbourne.

And she has shown throughout her stunning career she is just as much at home in the open water and surf as she is in the pool – already chalking up a host of World Lifesaving titles in the pool and surf and coveted Australian open surf championships – and using it very much to her advantage both physically and mentally a she prepares for a tilt for Paris.

As is the case in Australian swimming history the Olympic journey can be different to traditional pathways for swimmers around the world with various racing opportunities in surf and open water.

And while the world’s greatest ever female freestyler Katie Ledecky was busy doing her thing in at the Pro Swim series meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pallister joined 5000 mad-cap Aussie swimmers for the 1.2km Pier To Pub – one of the country’s most popular ocean swims on Victoria’s surf coast where she revelled in doing her own thing.

It’s nothing new for Pallister, who grew up in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, snapping at the heels of her swimming mad parents, surf ironman and triathlete father Rick and Olympian mother Janelle Elford.

The iconic Pier To Pub, a 1.2km ocean swim has attracted the likes of Olympians Kieren Perkins, Dan Kowalski, Rob Woodhouse, Mack Horton, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, Pat Murphy and Stacey Gartrell.

And Pallister aims to add title No 6 as Australia’s newest Olympians when she returns next year.

“It’s an Olympic year, everything and all of the decisions I’m making will impact my performance then,” Pallister told the Geelong Advertiser after her win.

“Five in a row is very special. It was a little bit colder than it has been in previous years. The tide was sucking out a lot more than it has before. 

“I felt like there was a part of the race where I was swimming backwards.”

Lani Pallister wins the open women’s Summer of Surf at Alexandra Headland. Photo Courtesy Harvpix.

She told The Advertiser she felt very confident coming into the race she could make it five in a row, having done a lot of distance racing in 2023.

“If you don’t bet on yourself, nobody else will…I’m quite confident in myself and my abilities,” she said.

“I’m always grateful to Lorne for putting on such an incredible event. It’s such an incredible weekend down here. Hopefully I can keep doing it for years and years to come.”

Earlier in the season Pallister had shown her absolute class in keeping her unbeaten women’s surf race run intact in Queensland Surf Life Saving’s Summer Of Surf Hayden Kenny Classic at her beloved Alexandra Headlands on the Sunshine Coast, saying: ‘The first and only individual surf race you’ll see from me this season -seven starts for seven wins and happy to keep it that way until after the Olympic year.”

Pallister (13 mins 09secs) who was a convincing winner over Victorian youngsters Mackenzie Hunter  (14:03) and Dominique Hart (14:06) will now set herself for the Australian Swimming Championships on the Gold Coast in April which will include several lead-in events in Sydney before the Paris Trials.

Meanwhile Queensland’s Manly-based Hayden Cotter (12:20), a name also familiar in open water and surf racing circles, like Pallister, wrapped up his fifth consecutive Pier To Pub men’s crown, over-coming his own health issues to beat returning veteran and seven-time winner Sam Sheppard (12.26) with fellow Victorian Jesse Coulson (12:99) third.