Huge Medal Haul for the West Coast at Roxby Downs Carnval

An inspiring 58 individual medals (plus additional team awards) were bought back to Port Lincoln following a action packed Roxby Downs Swimming Carnival held on Saturday 24th of November. 14 swimmers made the seven hour drive to the state's biggest mining town to test their metal against competitors from Roxby Downs, Port Augusta, Whyalla and a number of Adelaide clubs. The meet was a great confidence booster as the team begins the downhill run into preparations for the Country Championships in January. Excitement abounded with the chance of spending a weekend away with team mates and their families.

Kellie Dennis received a gold medal for all four of her 50m swims in the 11 and under age group together with a personal best in her 50m butterfly ; Freestyle 50m (38.91), Backstroke (49.83), Breastroke (52.90) and Butterfly (43.76). Henry Lambert also dominated his age group coming home with gold medals for all individual swims. His stand out swims for the day were his 50m Butterfly in 31.86 and his 200m freestyle in 2.30.23. There were some very tight competitions amongst Cameron and Harry Izzo with both boys extremely pleased with their medal tally from the day. 8 year old Cameron managed to produce an 11 second personal best in his 50m backstroke to finish in 1.04.24 just three seconds behind his older brother but finished the clear winner in the 25m breastroke to finish in front recording a time of 28.87 seconds. 10 year old Harry's swim of the day was his super 50m freestyle which he completed in 51.31 beating his previous best by 3 seconds to gain a silver medal. It was great to see Christopher Bawden honing his racing skills and being rewarded with some great results in the 11 and under age group. He came home with gold in the 50m butterfly (58.34), 50m freestyle (43.53), 50m backstroke (48.66) and 50m breastroke (53.87) and medaled in the 100m backstroke (1.49) - Bronze.

Tash Hammond, Brooke Traeger, Maddy Izzo and Jade Calverly produced some great results in the 13 year old women's events with Brooke comming up trumps in the 50m butterfly (35.03), 50m freestyle (30.90) and 50m backstroke (38.41) but being just edged out in the breastroke by Natasha Hammond (44.16). Natasha made it a triple in the breastroke with gold medals also in the 100m event (1.42.77) and 200m breastroke event (3.33.17). Great to see Maddy Izzo building her fitness and she is to be congratulated for a personal best in her 50m backstroke (42.44). Swimming in the younger age group Sophie Traeger performed really well against swimmers up to 2 years older and was clearly the fastest 8 year old female at the carnival. She was thrilled to medal in 3 of her 25 metre events;  backstroke (gold - 25.05), butterfly (silver - 25.92)and breastroke (silver - 29.03).

Ellie McInerney (S9) produced some great backstroke swims on the day finishing her 50m swim in 1.02.04 and her 100m swim in 2.19.90. It will be very interesting over the coming year watching Ellie work her way towards the 2 minute mark in the 100m event and possibly look at an international ranking over this distance. For information on current international paralympic rankings go to the official website for the International Paraylmpic Committee (IPC) www.paralympic.org Brooklyn George was delightful to watch in the breastroke events with her 100m time a significant improvement on her last swim (1.56.91) and her 200m time a 4.14.40. She almost managed to catch Kellie Dennis over the 50m recording a 53.81 which earnt her the silver medal in this event. Izzy Scott also came home with an individual medal around her neck following a great time in her 50m butterfly (silver - 48.12). She also achieved personal bests in her 50m breastroke (58.36) and freestyle (47.65).

In the men's 12 year old events Max Lambert and Coen George had a great time putting into action all that they have been training for over the past months. Max took home the gold medals in the freestyle (34.03), backstroke (42.39) and breastroke (47.59) with Coen just too hard to beat in the butterfly (42.94). Coen's improvements in this stroke continue with  a personal best time of 42.94 seconds being recorded. Since July he has shaved off 3 seconds over this distance and his efforts will be an important strength in all of our team entries to the Country Championships.