Kyle Chalmers who has been swimming with the Marion Swimming Club (previously from Port Lincoln) for the past two years won this age division in a 22.70 breaking the South Australian All-comers Record for this age group. His time was well under the Australian Open Short Course Qualifying standard of 23.80. Henry also had outstanding swims in both the backstroke almost breaking the 30 second barrier in the 50m race (30.18) and breastroke knocking 6 seconds off his previous 100m personal best (new time - 1.14.87). His open mindedness and willingness to test his talents against South Australia’s best, bought out an excellent level of personal performance. Achievement against National Age Standards is well within Henry’s abilities and the club looks forward to supporting further progress over the summer long course season. Backstroke specialist Tommy Ford competed in all available distances for this stroke and recorded some excellent personal best times in the 13 year old male division. He finished the 50m backstroke in 35.56, the 100m backstroke in 1.17.59 and the 200m in 2.43.21. These results placed him 9th, 11th and 6th overall. Following an unfortunate accident the day prior to attending the meet, Harrison Adams still managed a personal best performance of 1.10.57 in the 12 year old 100 freestyle. Whilst supporting his team mates, Harrison also competed in a further 4 events during the championships recording personal best times in the 50m butterfly (36.68), 50m backstroke (39.42) and 200m freestyle (2.36.05). This was his first opportunity to compete at State Championship level and he managed all of the technical requirements of competing at this level to the best of his ability. Also competing at State Championship level for the first time was Chris Bawden. Chris has clear talent in breastroke and made significant improvements in both the 50m (38.44) and 100m (1.24.22) events. Impressively Chris finished as South Australia’s 6th fastest 13 year old in these races. With continued work on the finer points of competitive racing including the importance of streamlining, quick acceleration from the block and technically proficient turns, Chris will be hard to beat in this age group at Country Championships in January. It’s great to see a young Tumby Bay swimmer with such significant support from his family to pursue his sporting ambitions. Fresh from a training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Jade Calverley walked away with a clean sweep of personal best times together with her highest ever multiclass point score. Jade was thrilled to achieve a number of National Open Short Course Qualifying times and received a great deal of support from the crowd when she requested permission to swim a special time trial for the 100 freestyle. Jade proved again that she has what it takes to compete at the elite level in swimming, managing a full event program over four full days of competition. She was crowned multiclass State Champion in every one of her races walking away with an incredible 8 gold medals. Perhaps her greatest improvement was in the 200m Individual Medley - a race which she is yet to consider as a serious strength. Amazingly Jade knocked almost 13 seconds off her previous best and is within 8 seconds of performing at National Open level. Jade’s next competition is just around the corner at the Australian National Short Course Championships to be held in Adelaide in early November. Brooke Traeger (15 years) is also edging closer to National Age Standards. She came into this competition having a winter season of light training but still proved she has got what it takes to be amongst the state’s best swimmers. The proudest moment of the meet for Brooke was her bronze medal and personal best performance in the 50m butterfly (30.66) having overcome three previously frustrating 4th placings. Brooke’s smashed a number of personal best performances including the 100 freestyle where she almost cracked the 1 minute mark (1.01.54), the 50m freestyle (28.39) and the 50m backstroke (33.18). Swimming in six B finals Brooke had her first taste of Open State level competition and thrived on the opportunity to swim against competitors that have raced at national level and gone on to represent Australia at major meets. For 11 year old Jamie Ford this was her first attendance at a State Championship after qualifying in 9 individual events following consistent improvements in performance over the winter competition season. Jamie’s most competitive performance was in the 50m butterfly where she equalled her previous best of 36.03 to finish as South Australia’s seventh fastest 11 year old female. She made some great headway on her backstroke personal bests knocking two and a half seconds off her 50m time to finish in 8th place (37.29) and a massive 6 seconds off her 100m time to record a 1.22.98. Jamie will be working hard to utilise her versatility across all strokes to put together a 200m Individual Medley in preparation for the 2015 Country Championships and State Age Long Course Meets both in January. Jamie will be hitting the pool hard at the forthcoming Primary Championships and has her eyes set on rewriting a number of existing pool records. Ellie McInerney was in high spirits for the championships and competed across a large number of events. She also reconnected with a number of athletes with whom she has struck up special friendships following her travel to Melbourne as part of the SA Team at the School Sport Championships. Ellie’s best performances were in the 200m freestyle (4.16.00) and 50m backstroke (1.01.68). She was awarded three bronze medals, for the two events listed previously as well as in the 50m butterfly (1.30.01). At 12 years of age Ellie competes in Multiclass Competition which gives swimmers with physical disabilities the opportunity to benchmark their personal performances against swimmers with a similar degree of disability. She has built her race repertoire considerably and also competed in the 200m Individual Medley for just her second time during these championships. The competitors expressed their thanks to Team Manager Nardine McInerney and Coach Sonia Ford for supporting the team throughout the meet. Thanks also to each of the parents who donated their time as time keepers during each session.
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AUTHORSonia Ford is our publicity officer and would love to hear of noteworthy news items from our swimming community! |