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Blair Evans (25) and Tamsin Cook (17) from the UWA-West Coast Swimming Club secured their seats to Rio with stunning swims on nights one and two of the 2016 Hancock Prospecting Australian Championships.

Blair Evans made the Australian team for her second Olympic Games with an impressive swim of 4:35.26 winning the women’s 400m individual medley.

“It’s been a really hard-fought three or four years for me,” Evans said.

Coming back from surgery and injury is not easy but Blair has been spurred on by her feeling that she has “unfinished business” from London 2012 and a determination to achieve even more.

“We were aiming for this sort of time for trials but there has been a few hits and misses in training the last few weeks with injuries. But to be able to come out and have such an enormous swim and a lifetime personal best for me. I am so extremely happy,” she said.

Tamsin Cook, already Junior World Champion , pushed eventual winner Jessica Ashwood right to the end in the 400m freestyle event and her time was good enough to book her seat to Rio.

Cook was bowled over when she heard the word Olympian used about her future. Dreaming of going to the Olympics since the age of 10, inspired by Libby Trickett and Stephanie Rice at Beijing, Cook can't believe that she can now count herself among them.

“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I was very nervous but I just told myself that when I get out there I have to be fearless and race to my race plan. And I think that’s what I did and I am just so happy to have gone under that qualifying time,” Cook said.

Other members of the UWA-West Coast Swimming Club, Zac Incerti, Alex Milligan, Damian Fyfe and Hadley Lindsay are with Blair and Tamsin competing at the championships. So far, Zac and Alex both made it through to finals in the 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke respectively but narrowly missed out on a spot in the Rio team.  With two more days of competition to go, there's more action to come.  And beyond this event no doubt we will see more from these young athletes; they will continue to train together, support one another and spur each other on in pursuit of their dreams.