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West Coast Swimmers travelled through to Whyalla on the 20th of March to support the Whyalla Swimming Club’s Annual Open Short Course Carnival. This event provides swimmers with the first opportunity in the short course calendar of events to post times for consideration in the State Short Course Championships scheduled in July. For the fourth consecutive year, West Coast Swimming Club took out the Rob Simpson Memorial 4 x 50m Medley Relay in a time of 2.13.84. Representing West Coast were Nicol Wright (backstroke), Kye Oestmann (breastroke), Joseph Perin (butterfly) and Alinta Dingwall (freestyle). Receiving a gold medal for finishing first in a freestyle event were; Tyler Davidson (M12&U 50m 31.76), Kye Oestmann (M13-14 50m 30.85, M13-14 100m 1.09.29), Joseph Perin (M15&O 50m 27.98), Oscar Dingwall M12&U 100m 1.13.52), Bailey Fraser (M15&O 100m 1.08.31), Charlotte Davidson (F10&U 25m 16.21, 12&U 50m 34.94), Alinta Dingwall (F13-14 50m 29.31, F13-14 100m 1.01.74) and Nicol Wright (F15&O 50m 29.75, F15&0 100m 1.06.44). Swimmers recording significant personal bests in the 50m freestyle event were Beau Hood (38.35), Dustin Siviour (45.19), Eddy Dingwall (52.74), Adler Larwood (38.28), Maggie McInerney (39.01) and Indigo Hood (54.31). All of these swimmers improved their personal best by over 2.5 seconds which is a considerable margin over a sprint distance. First place getters in breastroke were Oscar Dingwall (M12&U 50m 42.95, M14&U 200m 3.08.41), Kye Oestmann (M13-14 50m 40.39), Joseph Perin (M15&O 50m 36.48), Bailey Fraser (M15&O 100m 1.33.15) Tori Siviour (F12&U 50m 44.81, F12&U 100m 1.39.19), Alinta Dingwall (F13-14 50m 38.68, F13-14 100m 1.24.62, F14U 200m 3.02.35), Kylie Hurrell (F15&O 50m 38.83, F15&O 100m 1.23.06, F15&O 200m 2.56.57) and Charlotte Davidson (F10&U 25m 22.59). Winners in the backstroke competition were Charlotte Davidson (F10&U 25m 19.90, F12&U 50m 41.59), Alinta Dingwall (F13-14 50m 35.02, F13-14 100m 1.16.07), Nicol Wright (F15&O 50m 33.52, F15&O 100m 1.13.30), Maya Fraser (F12&U 100m 1.43.33), Tyler Davidson (M12&U 50m 35.61, M12&U 100m 1.20.61, M14&U 200m 2.46.00) and Joseph Perin (M15&O 50m 33.33, M15&O 100m 1.12.16). West Coast Medley Handicap Teams also enjoyed success with West Coast G (Jade Blacker - backstroke, Indigo Hood - breastroke, Romey Larwood - butterfly and Maya Fraser - freestyle) finishing first and West Coast E (Beau Hood - backstroke, Bradley Wright - breastroke, Braden Holley - butterfly and Tyler Davidson - freestyle) finishing second! Gold medalists in the butterfly events were Alinta Dingwall (F 13-14 50m 34.03, F13-14 100m 1.18.73), Charlotte Davidson (F10&U 25m 22.59), Oscar Dingwall (M12&U 50m 36.79) and Joseph Perin (M15&O 50m 32.10). With travel to other regional competitions challenging due to significant road distances and flight costs, the Whyalla competition is an important opportunity for all club swimmers to chart personal improvements, demonstrate the result of their hard work in training and work towards the achievement of qualifying times to permit competition at higher levels in the sport. Swimmers will shortly take a three week break following Easter and over the school holidays; with training to recommence at the beginning of Term 2. West Coast swimmers excelled at the recent State Age Long Course Championships held at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre over the Long Weekend, Thursday 4th to Monday 8th March. Congratulations to Alinta Dingwall (13) who secured two additional National Age Championship qualification standards in both her 100m (1.01.44) and 200m (2.16.91) Freestyle to complement her qualification in the 50m event. Alinta will be competing at Swimming Australia’s National Age Championships at the Gold Coast Swimming and Aquatic Centre in Queensland commencing on Monday 5th of April. Alinta secured 2 silver medals in the 13 years 50m Backstroke (33.91) and 50m Freestyle (28.60) and 2 bronze medals in the 100m and 200m Freestyle. Tahni Kelsh (12) blitzed the backstroke, setting another SA Country record in the 50m event with a time of 33.11 seconds. Tahni was named SA Age Group Champion in both this event and the 100m backstroke (1.13.14) improving her event entry time by over 4 seconds. Tahni also medalled in the 50m Freestyle, finishing second in a personal best time of 29.74 seconds and made top 5 swimmers in three other events - the 100m Freestyle (1.05.27), 100m Butterfly (1.15.14) and 50m Butterfly (32.68). Oscar Dingwall (11) has honed his race skills and took away three State Champion titles being awarded for his exceptional efforts in the 50m Breastroke (40.04), 100m Breastroke (1.29.41) and 200m Individual Medley (2.48.34). Oscar also performed well in both the 50m (34.53) and 100m Butterfly (1.20.29) finishing in the bronze medal position in both of these events. Recently recommencing training after the difficulty of COVID disruptions throughout 2021, Joseph Perin (16) certainly demonstrated his capability to maintain his competitiveness as a state finalist. Joseph was recalled to finals (top 10 competitors) in the 50m Backstroke (32.60), 50m Breastroke (36.63), 50m Freestyle (28.08) and 100m Backstroke (1.13.16). He achieved his greatest time improvement in the 50m Backstroke dropping 1.45 seconds. Competing only on the Monday of competition, due to Cricket and Hockey commitments, Bryce Hammond (14) also was recalled to finals in all three of his individual events. Bryce swum his 50m Freestyle in a time of 26.85, 200 Individual Medley in a time of 2.31.24 and 100m Backstroke in a time of 1.07.69. Bryce has also qualified to compete at the National Age Championships on the Gold Coast in the 50m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, however, will be representing South Australia at the Under 15 National Hockey Championships in Bathurst NSW which is being run concurrently. Swimming at their first State Age Championships were Charlotte Davidson (10) and Braden Holley (12). Charlotte achieved some excellent personal improvements shaving 1.63 seconds from her 50m Backstroke (40.67), 1.40 seconds from her 100m Freestyle (1.17.88), 3.22 seconds from her 100m Backstroke (1.30.54), .76 of a second from her 50m Freestyle (33.59) and .71 of a second from her 50m Breastroke (47.78). Braden competed in the 50m Freestyle recording a time of 35.62 seconds. Swimmers are currently preparing for the SAPSASA State Country Finals scheduled for the 26th of March as well as the Whyalla Open Carnival on Saturday 20th of March and Open Water on the following day. |
AUTHORSonia Ford is our publicity officer and would love to hear of noteworthy news items from our swimming community! |