World medals for dynamic duo

Above: Lakeisha Patterson and Brenden Hall with their World Championship medals. Picture: Delly Carr - Swimming Australia

Emotions were running high last night as Moreton Bay duo Lakeisha “Lucky” Patterson and Brenden Hall led Australia’s medal charge at the World Para Swimming Championships.

In Singapore, Lucky clocked her fastest time in six years to take the women’s world 400m freestyle S9 crown for a third time.

Moments later Hall left it until the last 50m to power through for bronze in the men’s 400m freestyle S9 – his 14^th medal from 10 world titles.

Hall, 32, described it as “one hell of a win for me”, while his USC Spartans colleague Lucky, 26, admitted she had never been so emotional following a race.

Former Bribie and Caboolture resident Lucky went up through the gears from 200m to overhaul Croatia’s Emma Mecic in a time of 4 minutes 39.40 seconds.

“This is probably the only time I’ve really been that emotional after a race,” said Lucky, who has trained at Southern Cross, Lawnton, Burpengary and now USC Spartans.

“I’ve been world champion before, but this time, it’s just so much more special,” she told Swimming Australia.

“To come back here post-Paris, doing the fastest times I’ve done in nearly six years … and after really modifying and scaling back my program in order to make it work for me, just means so much.”

“I’ve been through a lot in the last 10 months, everyone has, but
particularly for me health wise. All I can say is praise God for getting me here and having the opportunity.

“To my coach Harley … sticking with me through thick and thin and my family and team-mates here (I’m) really excited to do this for Australia.

“Harley told me, leading into this, use your experience of the last 10 months, push that forward.

“I’ve got nine years of training on these girls, so I knew I had the experience behind me. I just had to believe in myself and execute the race plan - and I did that.”

Last night, on Swimming Australia's Instagram page, Hall said of Lucky’s gold: “Never doubted it for a minute 💪”.

And after Hall won bronze, Lucky returned the tribute: “No one more deserving 🥹💪🏼🐐”

Hall, who grew up in Petrie and went to Pine Rivers State High School, hit the wall in 4 minutes 14.69 seconds to take bronze.

The former Redcliffe, Lawnton and Burpengary star said before the worlds he would be “pretty happy” to medal. He did and he was.

"I've got my little ones watching,” Hall told Swimming Australia as his family watched in the stands.

“The youngest probably doesn't have a clue what's going on. But, I know what it means to my oldest. To have them here in the stands. It's pretty special."

"As you get older, things do get harder. I have to use my experience to play against my younger foes, because I know they're going to have the advantage of strength, recovery and everything else. So I've got to swim it smarter."

"I didn't sit at the top for ten years for nothing. So, to come away with third, that's one hell of a win for me."

Morayfield resident Ricky Betar, who also trains under Harley Connolly at USC Spartans, was fifth in last night’s remarkable final of the 200m individual medley S14.

Betar clocked 2 minutes 10.08 seconds behind Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira who set a world record 2:05.40 and Britain’s Rhys Darbey who had a European record 2:05.84 finishing second.

However, Betar still has the men’s 100m butterfly S14 on his schedule tomorrow.