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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Shayna Jack, Cody Simpson win Aussie swim team spot

An emotional Shayna Jack has wept tears of joy after securing selection on Australia’s swim team in her comeback from a doping ban.

Jack will swim at this year’s world titles and Commonwealth Games, where she will be joined by pop star Cody Simpson.

The 23-year-old broke down after sealing a 100 metres freestyle spot at the national championships in Adelaide on Wednesday night.

Jack, whose two-year doping suspension ended last year, finished second behind Mollie O’Callaghan in the final.

That feat earns her automatic selection for the world championships in Budapest in June and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July-August.

“I am just overwhelmed with emotions to be back on the team,” a teary Jack said.

“Not many people really know what I actually went through, the depths of it.

“And to be back and wearing those (Australian) colours again means more than anything to me.”

Jack was initially banned for four years after testing positive to the banned substance Ligandrol about three weeks before the 2019 world championships.

The Queenslander’s suspension was reduced to two years on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found Jack did not knowingly ingest the substance.

Jack’s triumph came moments after global pop sensation Simpson finished third in the men’s 100m butterfly final.

Swimmers finishing in the top two in a final at the nationals gain selection for the worlds and the top three placegetters earn a spot for the Commonwealth Games.

Simpson finished behind winner Matt Temple and Kyle Chalmers, who will skip the worlds to focus on the Commonwealth Games.

Chalmers’ decision to bypass the worlds means Simpson is a likely discretionary selection for Budapest, while being a certainty for the Commonwealth Games.

“I certainly didn’t even expect it to even be a possibility until 2024,” Simpson said of being on an Australian team.

“The fact that stuff has started to happen so quickly, so early, is just unreal.”

Simpson, 25, was a promising junior swimmer before becoming a global pop sensation after releasing songs on YouTube from 2010. He returned to the pool in 2019.

Other winners on Wednesday night included Elijah Winnington (men’s 400m freestyle), Jenna Strauch (women’s 100m breaststroke) and Josh Edwards-Smith (men’s 200m backstroke).

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