Australian Institute of Sport athlete Ben Treffers has qualified for his first Australian world championships team after winning the men’s 100m backstroke last night at the 2011 Telstra Australian Swimming Championships.

Treffers qualified fastest for the final at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre with a personal best time of 54.18 and lowered it again with a 53.72 in the final to book his seat on the plane to Shanghai for the 14th FINA World Championships in July this year.

Treffers led home Olympians Hayden Stoeckel (53.87) and Ashley Delaney (54.17) in a start-to-finish victory.

The nineteen-year-old former Canberra Grammar School student missed out on qualifying for the 2010 Commonwealth Games last year by 0.01 seconds in the 50m backstroke but showed his continued improvement with tonight’s performance.

Treffers, who is the son of New Zealand’s two time Olympian Mark Treffers (1972 Munich Olympic Games and 1976 Montreal Olympic Games), said it was a surreal feeling to make his first world championships team.
“I’m absolutely stoked and it’s still hitting me now,” Treffers said. “To win the 100m backstroke and take off over a second in the last year is incredible.

“I’ve had a lot of change with my coaching and adjusting my training program and it’s beginning to pay off.

“I’ve missed two senior teams by 0.01 seconds so this makes it all the better now.”