Hall claims bronze at World Para Swimming Championships

Swimmer Brenden Hall has bounced back from a bout of COVID-19 and isolation in a hotel room to take bronze in the Men’s 400m Freestyle S9 Final at the World Para Swimming Championships in Portugal.

Hall lives at Mango Hill and trains with the Burpengary-based Belgravia team and coach Harley Connolly.

He finished third in the race with a time of 4:15.97, behind first-placed Simone Barlaam of Italy (4:10.78) and Ugo Didier of France (4:11.16).

Just making it in the pool for the gruelling 400m race was an achievement and he was relieved to be competitive against the world’s best.

“I spent seven days in a hotel room in isolation. Look, I know it can get a bit tough and (you can) go a bit loony in isolation on your own but think yourself lucky back home in Australia,” he said after the race.

“To turn it around ... obviously not as fast as I would like it to be but I’m happy to be on the podium again.”

The 29-year-old veteran of the Dolphins Swim Team was selected for his first Australian team at the age of 14 ahead of the 2007 Arafura Games.

Since then, he has amassed eight gold, one silver, two bronze medals from World Championships in 2010 Eindhoven, 2013 Montreal, 2015 Glasgow and 2019 London.