Ashby grabs win, Boyle has solid hit-out in Australian Grand Prix

Rio debutant Bradlee Ashby enjoyed success on the final night of the Australian Grand Prix meet in Brisbane.

The two-day event was designed to provide a hit-out for the Australian Olympic team in their lead-up to the Rio Olympics.

Ashby, 20, who is part of Swimming New Zealand’s high performance squad, took out the men’s 200m individual medley in 2:01.89, two seconds outside his national record but impressive in both result and performance on the back of a hard training load.

He was able to finish comfortably ahead of Australia’s Travis Mahoney, who will contest the 400m individual medley in Rio.

Lauren Boyle was second in the 400m freestyle behind Jessica Ashwood from Australia, in 4:09.43 in her first competitive outing in three months.

Boyle, who has trained through the Grand Prix meet, reeled off 31 second laps after her opening 29 second effort which pleased her New Zealand-based coach Graeme Laing, after an equally solid effort over the 800m on Friday.

“Lauren swam well in Brisbane in full workload. She has been training very hard and we are on track for Rio and will be ready once she tapers down and rests up,” Laing said.

“She is back in the Gold Coast with the group under Denis Cotterell and back into training straight away.”

Rio Olympic