World championships next step for Mitchell Donaldson

Mitchell Donaldson hopes to continue to prove his move across the Tasman was the right decision at the New Zealand Open Championships in Auckland next week.

Since moving to live and train under the coaching of Scott Talbot two years ago in Sydney, the predominantly medley performer has made huge gains as a freestyle swimmer.

Last year he scooped a shock success in the 200m freestyle at the New Zealand Open Championships setting a stunning new personal best of 1:48.80 before going on to perform with distinction in a range of events at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Yet the North Swimming Club member does not underestimate the impact moving to Australia has made on his career, which appears to be on the rise at a critical point in his development.

“It has been a huge refresher moving to Sydney,” explains Donaldson, who also appeared at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona. “Plus other things like looking after myself has definitely been for the better and I’ve grown as a person.

“I’ve enjoyed the change of lifestyle, living in a big city with new challenges juggling training, working and uni,” he explains. “The training environment is just like anywhere else but the thing I feel helps the most is the local racing is really fast.”

The Whangaparaoa swimmer went on to enjoy a solid Commonwealth Games finishing 11^th in the 200m freestyle, tenth in the 200m Individual Medley – missing out on a finals spot by 0.35 – and featured in the New Zealand team which placed fifth in the 4x200m freestyle.

Now the coffee-loving, Donaldson, who boasts his own blog on the subject, is setting his sights on the next stage of his career development which is to qualify for the World Championships in Kazan later this year.

“I feel like I’m the best prepared I’ve been and I’ve set some solid times in the past couple of months, so I’m really excited to see what I can do,” adds the 22-year-old. “The faster I go this year the better it will set me up for Rio.”

Mitchell Donaldson - Fact Box

Mitchell started the sport of competitive swimming at the age of nine.