FOLLOWING on from strong performances at the SA Country Championships in Broken Hill, a number of West Coast swimmers headed to the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Marion to contest the 2018 State Long Course Age Championships from January 16 to 21. The championships are open to interstate and international competitors and there were large teams from Victoria and the Northern Territory present along with individuals from all other Australian states. The championships are hosted over 6 days, which allowed for morning seeded heats to then decided the ten age group finalists in each event. Finals are run in the evening with interstate visitors allocated a maximum of two finals berths. Two reserves are also named to compensate for any late withdrawals.

Bryce Hammond, 11, was the star West Coast performer, at his third championship event over the past six weeks. Bryce completed the meet with the highest South Australian point score for his age group, beaten only by a very strong competitor from Sunraysia Swimming Club in Victoria on overall points. Points are allocated on a scale of 10 to one, with 10 points being allocated to the gold medal placing through to one point for 10th position. His persistence, sportsmanship and determination throughout the competition was an inspiration.Bryce fought hard to be named South Australian age group champion in the 11 and under 100m backstroke, which he completed in a personal best time of 1.16.82. He also blitzed the field in the 100m butterfly to secure the gold medal in a time of 1.11.68. Bryce added to his medal haul with silver in the 50m butterfly (32.54), 50m freestyle (30.15), 100m freestyle (1.07.96) and 50m backstroke (35.65 seconds). He also secured bronze in the 200m individual medley (2.49.52). Many of these performances were significant improvements from his initial ranking going into each final. All in all, Bryce took home seven medals together with personal best swims in every race.

Arjay Isle (12 years) raced extremely well, making strong improvements and building on his Country Championships performances. His most competitive results were in the 100m and 200m backstroke events where after morning heat swims of 1.21.51 and 2.51.64 respectively, he was called back as second reserve and ninth placed qualifier into the finals. Arjay was thrilled with a number of personal best freestyle swims clocking 32.55 in his 50m freestyle, 1.12.51 in his 100m freestyle and 2.39.00 in his 200m freestyle. All of these times ranked well on the Swimming Australia Junior Excellence schedule of qualification standards, edging close to silver level times.

Max Rogalski (14 years) continues to show strong potential in breastroke and works hard to make minor adjustments to his technique in order to shave off time from his previous best. He was invited back into finals for all three breastroke distances finishing in a 35.62 for his 50m race (fifth overall), 1.19.44 for the 100m event (eighth place overall) and 3.00.33 in the 200m race (ninth overall). Max is able to develop strong, encouraging relationships with his competitors and is especially enthusiastic when another country competitor is able to generate a personal best performance.
His exceptional sportsmanship and team spirit is always a highlight. Max also swam an excellent 50m butterfly to take almost two seconds off his previous best (31.90).

Jamie Ford (14 years) raced well, however competition fatigue had definitely set in during her third event this month. She posted two personal best times during the championships - one being in the 200m freestyle (2.26.52) and the other being in the 200m backstroke (2.49.45). Her most competitive performance was in the 50m butterfly, narrowly missing a finals place by less than 0.3 of a second.
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West Coast swimmers are looking forward to participating in the Tunarama long swim this weekend and the countdown is also on to the Queen’s Baton Relay where four team members (Bryce Hammond, Max Rogalski and Kylie and Dana Hurrell) all have the honour of carrying the torch in either Port Lincoln or Coffin Bay. All swimmers are on a week-long training break in readiness for the 10-week build up to the Secondary School Sport South Australia and SAPSASA events scheduled for March in Adelaide. 

18 swimmers from West Coast Swimming Club travelled through to Broken Hill to contest the 2018 Country Swimming Championships from the 5th- 8th of January 2018.  With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees for the duration of the event, conditions were challenging and significant changes were required to the competition program for the safety of swimmers, officials and supporters.
 
Setting a new Championship Record for the 14 years 50m Butterfly was Jamie Ford who went out all guns blazing in a time of 31.82 seconds. This was also the fastest 50m female Butterfly time of the meet and earned her the title of Open SA Country Champion.
 
Awarded SA Country Champion in their respective age group events and bringing home gold medals were Joel Edmonds (14 year old 50m Butterfly - 31.17) and Dana Hurrell (15 year old 50m Breastroke - 40.21 seconds). Fresh from being named the Lower Eyre Peninsula Junior Sports Person of the year, Bridie Mickan listed the fastest time in the 12 year old 50m Breastroke (40.07 seconds) as well as the 12 and under 200m Individual Medley finishing in a new personal best time of 2.57.85. 

Kylie Hurrell had a brilliant set of performances throughout the championships and was thrilled with her silver medal in the 13 year old 50m Breastroke - 42.32. Also awarded as a silver medalist was Max Rogalski who secured second place in both the 14 year old 50m Breastroke - 37.81 and the 100m Breastroke in the 14/15 age group in a new personal best time of 1.21.91.

Following on from his impressive performance at the 2017 Pacific School Games in Adelaide in December, Bryce Hammond was the fastest 10 year old butterfly swimmer and took out the 11 and under silver medal for both the 50m and 100m events in a time of  34.03 and 1.16.13 respectively. Bridie Mickan had an amazing swim in the 200m freestyle bettering her previous best by over 5 seconds to take out the silver medal in the 12 and under age group (2.38.23). She also placed second in the 12/13 100m Breastroke (1.26.06) and in the 12 years 50m Backstroke in a personal best of 37.46 seconds. Amali White performed extremely well with a silver medal in the 11 and under 50m Butterfly (39.32). Arjay Isle swam a strong Backstroke race in the 12 year old 50m event to take out the silver medal (38.68). Jamie Ford also was back on the medal podium for her efforts finishing in second position with a 35.47 in the 14 year old 50m Backstroke. 

Bronze medalists were Amali White who really let it rip in the girls 11 and 100m Freestyle listing a 5 second personal best swim of 1.14.83 seconds. She also swam a .96 second personal best in the 50m event to finish in 3rd (33.69). Kylie Hurrell built on her medal haul with a bronze in the 12-13 400m freestyle (6.04.69). She also backed this up with a fantastic swim in the 100m breastroke (2.47 second personal best) to secure bronze in the 12 - 13 age group. Maddy McShane recorded a new personal best in the 16/17 years 100m butterfly of 1.22.58 to secure 3rd. Bridie Mickan showed her versatility receiving bronze in both the 12 year old girls 50m Butterfly (35.67) and the 12/13 100m Backstroke (1.22.22). Arjay Isle swam amazing races in both the 12 year old 50m Backstroke with a massive personal best swim of 38.71 seconds as well as the 100m event (1.21.93). Joel Edmonds showed a strong improvement in his technique to take out bronze in a 2.5 second personal best of 35.46 seconds in the 14 year 50m Backstroke.  Harrison Blight was a strong competitor in the 11 and under 100m Breastroke, listing a 4.5 second personal best to take home his first Country Championship medal (Bronze - 1.37.06). 

​The tradition of strong relay performances continued with West Coast securing a fantastic win in the 12 and under 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay with Bryce Hammond, Ryder Rogalski, Harrison Blight and Arjay Isle all putting in 110% effort to beat the team from Clare who were also strong contenders. The boys finished this race in a 2.14.26. They also took out the gold medal in the 4 x 50m Medley Relay. They narrowly missed the existing  Country Championship record for this event. The record stood at a 2.32.11 and they recorded a 2.32.27.
 
The 16 and under boys team (Max Rogalski, Harrison Adams, Joel Edmonds and Joseph Perin) collected a bronze medal for their efforts in the 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay (2.02.09). Also medalling in teams racing was the 14 and under girls team of Bridie Mickan, Kylie Hurrell, Jamie Ford and Amali White. The girls won the silver medal in a 2.23.96 behind the team from Blue Lake Y.

​Preceding championship racing, younger swimmers are given the opportunity to participate in the ‘Superfish’ event which is held on Friday night. Asta Mickan competed in all 4 events placing first in the 8 and under 50m Freestyle (40.65), 50m Backstroke (51.30), 50m Breastroke (53.67) and second in the 50m Butterfly (1.05.69). Rahni White raced really well finishing second in both the 8 and under 50m Freestyle (45.01) and 50m Breastroke (1.01.55). She also raced the 50m Backstoke finishing third (57.85). Tyrell Nemeth-Ford (6 years) had a great 50m Freestyle finishing in 7th place in the 8 and under age group in a 1.08.11. He was a bit nervous about the 50m Backstroke but was a little trooper finishing in 9th place in a 1.27.01.
 
Congratulations to Kate Taverner on her acknowledgement at the Country Championships as our best team person. The club would also like to acknowledge the support given to the team by previous club member Natasha Hammond who served as Team Manager alongside Sonia Ford who was the Team Coach. The club has members about to contest the SA Long Course State Championships in Adelaide commencing on Tuesday 16th of January. The 2019 Country Swimming Championships will be hosted in Port Pirie.

This year’s event was particularly exciting with the involvement of swimming legend Ian Thorpe. He took the time to meet with swimmers as part of his promotion of the 2016 Australian Swimming Championships (Rio Olympic Qualifying) which will be held at the SAALC in April. PLPS student Joel Edmonds who swum exceptionally well on the day was invited to meet with Thorpey. Joel’s photograph has since appeared in the Adelaide Advertiser.  Also taking the time to wish swimmers the best on the day was rising star Kyle Chalmers who will contest the 50m and 100m freestyle at the championships and Sally Hunter who will be looking for a place on the Australian Dolphins Swim Team in the 100m and 200m breastroke.

It wasn’t long into the program before reports of personal best times and the awarding of medals for individual and team performances came flooding in. Joel Edmonds set the tone for the meet with a very quick 1.07.83 to qualify fastest for the 100m freestyle in the first race of the day. The top 8 swimmers following preliminary heats are invited into their respective age group final. 50m freestyle medallists from LEP were; Amali White - Bronze 10yr girls (39.86), Arjay Isle - Bronze 11yr boys (35.69), Angus Waller - Silver Multi-class (MC) boys 100m Freestyle, Bronze MC boys 50m Freestyle and Joel Edmonds - Gold 13yr boys (30.77). Also making finals (top 8 swimmers) were Harrison Blight -5th 10yr boys (41.01), Ryder Rogalski - 6th 11yr boys (37.83), Liam Gerber - 6th 12yr boys (36.36) and Tasmin Durdin 5th 12yr girls (34.72). The team would also like to acknowledge the willingness of Sydney Claughton (Cummins Area School) to put her hand up to compete as a 13yr old. Sydney swam a 38.07 to narrowly miss the final in the freestyle. She also raced breastroke (58.06) and backstroke (49.84).

Next on the program was the Open Medley Relay teams racing. The boys team comprising of Dylan Evans (backstroke), Max Rogalski (breastroke), Joel Edmonds (butterfly) and Liam Gerber (freestyle) were clearly a cut above their competitors finishing 9 seconds ahead of their nearest rival team to take out the gold medal in 2:37.82. The girls team had a great race, but unfortunately were disqualified for a stroke rule infraction. Represented the LEP in this event were Ellie Akehurst (backstroke), Kylie Hurrell (breastroke), Tasmin Durdin (butterfly) and Megan Carr (freestyle).

St Josephs school had 8 representatives on the team. In her final year as a SASSSA representative, Brooke Traeger (Year 12) recorded some excellent results across both the individual open competition and open teams racing. She finished in 4th position in both the 50m butterfly (open) Division 1 (30.86) and 50m freestyle (open) Division 1 (29.44). She swam an excellent 100m freestyle in a long course personal best time of 1.03.19. and represented the Far West in both the Open Medley and Open Freestyle women’s teams racing.

Kellie Dennis joined the team for her second consecutive year, this time racing in the U15 age division. Kellie competed in both freestyle and backstroke individual events recording a new long course personal best in the 50m U15 Division 2 backstroke (39.98) as well some very competitive times in two individual 50m freestyle races. She recorded a 33.07 in the U15 Division 1 freestyle and went on to swim over .5 of a second quicker in the U16 Division 2 freestyle (32.41).

Also racing in the U15 age division, Madeline McShane was thrilled with her performances throughout the night. Madeline smashed her personal best to swim a 31.73 in the U15 Division 2 freestyle. This was a fraction of a second quicker than her performance in the U16 Division 3 freestyle (31.84).  She also smashed her previous best by nearly three seconds to record a 38.78 in the U16 Division 2 backstroke and was a real asset in the U15 freestyle relay which was placed 6th in their event.

Newcomers to the team this year were year 8 students Jamie Ford and Dana Hurrell. Jamie commenced her program with the U14 Division 2 backstroke. She swam this event in a close to personal best time of 37.06 to be placed 3rd. With a tight turn around to the U16 Division 1 backstroke she couldn’t quite maintain the same pace and recorded a 38.66. Jamie also raced the U14 Division 3 freestyle (33.60) and the U14 Division 3 breastroke (46.47 – 3rd). Dana won the U14 Division 2 breastroke in a time of 41.20 seconds and followed this shortly after with an almost copycat performance in the U15 Division 1 race to finish 4th (41.15). Both Jamie and Dana were members of a number of the age group freestyle relay teams as well.

It was awesome to have Jarrod Stolz (year 8) return to the pool in preparation for the event. Jarrod competed in a full program of both individual and teams racing. Jarrod was placed third in the U14 Division 3 breastroke (45.99) and held pace nicely for the U16 Division 1 event shortly after (46.57). He recorded a new personal best time of 37.61 in the U15 Division 3 freestyle event and represented the region in both the U14 and U15 freestyle relay events. Team mate Harrison Adams who is also in year 8 this year continued to hold form well after a length summer competition schedule. Similarly to Jarrod, Harrison had three individual events. Up first was the U14 Division 2 backstroke which Harrison completed in a 37.41 to finish in 3rd place. His time was a new personal best for this distance and a clear 2 seconds quicker than his performance at the State Championships in January.  Harrison also raced the U14 Division 2 freestyle which he completed in a 30.76 to finish 4th closely followed by a 30.91 in the U15 Division 1 freestyle event. Both of these times also represented clear improvements from his performance at the Country Championships where he recorded a 31.12 over the same distance.

Patrick Newman was a new addition to the team after putting his hand up to fill one of the positions left after the departure of a number of team representatives through to boarding school in Adelaide. Patrick is new to competition pool racing and after a crash course over a couple of training sessions in Port Lincoln he did the team proud to record a 55.66 for the U15 Division 2 breastroke. Unfortunately, he was disqualified in his subsequent race.

West Coast Swimming Club members Bridie Mickan (Cummins Area School) and India Copland (Navigator College) had the amazing opportunity to represent South Australia at the Pacific School Games, which was hosted in Adelaide commencing on Saturday 21st of November and concluding on Friday 27th. This multi-sport, international sporting event is coordinated through School Sport Australia and attracted competitors from every Australian State and Territory as well as 12 international teams from countries such as New Zealand, Fiji, China, India, Macau and Cambodia.

The Games attracted 4000 participants to Adelaide. Of them, some 600 were involved in the swimming events. To qualify, swimmers must be in the top 4 swimmers within their respective age group, attended scheduled qualifying meets and regularly competing and training at the highest level.

Swimming in the 10 year old girls age group, Bridie performed exceptionally well throughout the championships, achieving a personal best time in every race. To start the competition off she swam the 200m Individual medley - a race which she has been working towards improving for some time. This was followed by the breastroke leg for her relay team which she finished in 44.29 seconds. A huge personal best (PB) time. Day 2 in the pool saw her back this up with a fantastic 50 breastroke in the heats of the 10 year old girls’ event smashing out another new PB of 44.02 which qualified her through to the final in 10th position. She was the only SA Swimmer to make it into the final and swam a blinder. Off the block in .71 seconds and finished in 10th in another PB time of 43.55. This was 3 seconds faster than she was swimming just 4 weeks ago. Bridie also completed the 100m breastroke in a 1.39.12 (2 second PB from a month ago) finishing in 10th position, the 50 backstroke where she whipped off another 2 seconds recording a 41.52, the 100m backstroke (1.31.82) and swam numerous freestyle relay events representing her team.

Swimming in the 13 year old girls age group, India Copland’s first race was in the freestyle leg of the 4 x 50m Medley Relay. She certainly finished of the race in fine style clocking a personal best swim of 28.66 seconds.  She also had the opportunity to compete in this sprint event as an individual competitor and recorded a very competitive time of 28.85 seconds which was just .15 of a second shy of the National Age Qualifying time for 13 year old girls. She was placed 17th with the winner of this event just a little over one second infront of India. India continued her run of personal best swims finishing the 100m freestyle in a 1.08.22 as part of the 4 x 100 Medley Relay team and another PB in the 50 backstroke of 34.16 to finish in 13th position.

The Pacific School Games is quite a spectacle with official opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies, visits by past Olympians and the ever present Games mascot "Matey". Swimmers are given the opportunity to make new friends through educational excursions to iconic Adelaide attractions such as the Adelaide Zoo.  Both the girls are members of West Coast Swimming Club and are able to make use of the training regime provided at the Port Lincoln Pool. Along with 41 other club representatives they now have their sights set on competing at the SA Country Championships in Loxton commencing on Friday 8th of January and will be working hard to perform at their best at the SA State Age Swimming Championships in Adelaide later on that same month.

From the 16th - 18th of July, swimmers headed to the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre for three intense days of age group competition to determine South Australia’s age group and open Short Course Champions in the pool. During the summer season athletes will conduct the majority of their competition in a 50m (Long Course) swimming pool and then over winter the competition program focuses on events in a shorter distance pool set to 25m (Short Course). All of the team members had secured the qualification prerequisites through previous competition results. Spirits soared as personal best times in a number of events were improved and individuals finished ranked amongst the most competitive swimmers in their respective age groups. With events being resulted based upon performances in heat swims, there was additional pressure to produce a perfect performance. In the week leading up to the Championships a number of swimmers took up chance to train with the squad at Immanuel College where previous club coach Carolyn Veldhuyzen is currently based.

From her 8 events swum, Jade Calverley proved she is one of South Australia’s best multiclass athletes, being award gold in all but one of her events. Jade recently attended a gathering of athletes who have been placed on the ‘Long List’ of athletes who are being considered for possible selection into the 2016 Rio Paralympic Team and proudly wore her International Paralympic attire to the competition.  Managing an injury to her wrist, Jade was unable to post her most competitive times, but still swam with purpose and passion. Through her performances at earlier competitions Jade has achieved the qualification standards necessary to contest the Australian Short Course Championships in November in both breastroke and freestyle and has her sights firmly set on this competition.

Joel Edmonds gave the team a real boost with his outstanding performance in the 11 and under 100m freestyle event, which saw him up on the medal podium having recorded the third fastest time in South Australia for his age group. His time of 1.10.01 was a massive thirteen second improvement and with further race experience and refinement of his starts, turns and finishes Joel will certainly be one to watch in this event. Joel didn’t stop at this first event. narrowly missing medals in the 100m butterfly (1.25.38) to finish 5th, 50m freestyle (32.08) to finish 4th and 200m freestyle (2.44.15) to finish 9th.

Max Rogaliski competed in the same age group as his teammate Joel and was focussed on building on his previous experience at State Championship level from January. Max was thrilled to post personal best times in each of his four races and recorded his most competitive times in breastroke. Building on his trade mark super quick reaction time off the starting blocks, Max placed 6th in both the 11 and under 50m breastroke (44.04) and 100m breastroke (1.37.89). His 50m freestyle time has now dropped to 35.31 seconds which improved his previous best by a clear second. His final race of the meet was his 50m backstroke which again saw him wipe 2 seconds from his personal best to finish in 42.67 seconds.

Competing at her first State Championships, Kylie Hurrell contained her nerves and swum two excellent breastroke events. She was able to hold her stroke well for the duration of both races and finished strongly on each occasion. Her 50m time was bettered by .58 of a second to record a 48.61 and with further development of her starts and turns Kylie will be poised for a very exciting SA Country Championships in January.

Two swimmers represented West Coast in the 12 year old girls’ age group. Dana Hurrell is incredible to watch in her events and actively supports her team mates with plenty of positive encouragement. Through her dedication to training and willingness to incorporate coaching feedback, she made some amazing improvements at this event and finished top ten for her age group in both the 50m and 100m breastroke events. Her 50m time was recorded as a 40.34 whilst she wiped three seconds off her 100m time to record a 1.30.27. Dana’s fitness showed throughout the 200m breastroke where she successfully swam a huge 15 seconds faster than she did in January in the same event. Her time was clocked at 3.14.06.

Also competing as a 12 year old, Jamie Ford was able to execute her most successful meet to date walking away with personal best times in all 6 events swum. Her first event of the meet was the 200m butterfly and Jamie finished 5 seconds better than she had previously swum in 3.03.21. Next on the program was the 100m backstroke and she finished in 8th position in 1.18.31 followed by the 100m butterfly in which she literally flew to finish 4 seconds quicker (1.20.26). Jamie loves a 50m sprint event and in the 50m Backstroke she finished 7th in an awesome time of 35.83. In the 50m freestyle she well and truly blitzed her heat on her start to finish in 31.83 seconds (11th) and in her pet event the 50m butterfly she recorded her first sub 34 second swim (33.84 seconds) to record her most competitive placing in 6th.

Christopher Bawden had set himself a busy schedule with 7 events over the three days of competition. Competing as a 14 year old at this meet certainly saw the competition standard heat up. Chris was able to record personal best swims in the 200 metre breastroke where he swam a 2.49.52 to finish in 7th position. He also lowered his 100m breastroke time to 1.18.44 to place 8th and narrowly missed the hat trick of personal bests in the 50m event by .1 of a second, recording a result of 36.71 seconds. Chris also swam the 400m freestyle (5.05.31) and with a little more race experience will quickly drop this event to under the 5 minute mark. His 100m freestyle also has plenty of potential to work down around the minute mark with some careful attention to maintaining consistent low 16 second splits over 25 metres and working hard to hold an efficient streamline after each turn. Chris’s time of 1.05.11 shows he is holding is fitness well over winter and will reap the benefits of regular attendance at training as we come into the summer season. He swam a very quick 50m freestyle race of 28.54 seconds which was a nice .3 second personal best and finished the meet with a 50m butterfly, reaching the end of the pool in a 31.30 which was again quicker than he has ever managed the race previously.

Jamie Ford (12 years) 50m Butterfly - 33.84

The coaching team at West Coast Swimming Club would like to congratulate all of those swimmers attending the championships. Age group swimming can certainly be a challenging environment for swimmers, as the category they are placed in is determined by the age the swimmer is on the first day of the swimming meet. For some swimmers this means swimming with competitors that can be up to 11 months older than they are and can result in a false perception of how competitive they are as compared to swimmers of a similar physical developmental phase in their adolescence. The club places the emphasis on swimmers striving to record personal best times and instead benchmarking their performance against the Junior Excellence and Youth Performance Squad age group criteria.

The club is also extremely proud to announce that they have been listed as a finalist in the community sport category in this year’s Brand SA Regional Awards. The competitive swimming year commences on the 1st of October and the club is always keen to receive enquiries from interested able bodied or swimmers with a disability who are interested in learning more about how they can take advantage of being involved in the sport. More information is available via www.westcoastswimmingclub.com  

Members of the West Coast Swimming Club had the opportunity to update their long course (50m) personal best times at the Playford Aquatic Winter Carnival on the first Sunday of the school holidays (July 5th). The carnival was hosted at the Elizabeth Aquadome and focused on the provision of a full program of freestyle and backstroke events. The club then offers a second long course carnival in September focussing on breastroke and butterfly events.

Star performer of the meet was Arjay Isles (9 years) who medalled in each of his races. He has now dropped under the 40 second mark for the 50 freestyle finishing in 38.67 seconds, to record the second fastest time for 10 and under boys. He followed this up in the 100m freestyle with a bronze medal, recording a personal best of 1.34.15. Heading into the backstroke, Arjay completed the 50m race in 46.66 seconds to add another silver medal and knocked 5 seconds of his previous best in the 100m race to finish with his 3rd silver placing in 1.37.57.

Biggest improver was Jessica Mesecke, who at 11 years of age has demonstrated a much better understanding of race skills such as turns and starts and together with her dedication to training, has knocked some serious time off of her previous personal bests. Jessica started with a three second improvement on her freestyle to almost crack the 40 second barrier to finish in 40.66 seconds. She added another personal best in the 100m freestyle with a 1.39.20. Moving into the backstroke, she finished the 50m race in 51.03 seconds and wiped 8 seconds of her 100m previous best to record a finishing time of 1.48.36 seconds.

Tasmin Durdin (11 years) continued to show her talent as a longer distance freestyler recording a massive personal best of 3.00.16 in the 200m event. This removed 23 seconds from her previous best and is well under the Country Championships Standard Time of 3.20.00 for 12 year olds. Her 100m freestyle posted an improvement of 4 seconds to record a 1.25.51 which again is well under the standard required for 11 year olds at the Country Championships. Tasmin also performed extremely well in the 200m backstroke recording a 3.27.31 and it is fantastic to see a young swimmer expanding her repertoire of swims.

Stuart Mesecke (13 years) was all smiles in the 50m freestyle with a new personal best of 34.52 seconds and he maintained a very competitive performance in the 100m race finishing in 1.21.94. It was awesome to see him also improve his 100m backstroke by two seconds to record a 1.38.86, showing that his regular attendance at winter training is setting him up for a very successful summer season.

Jamie Ford (12 years) pumped out her best race of the day for the 50m backstroke 38.12 to take out the gold medal placing in this event. Jamie was also thrilled with her 200m backstroke performance recording a 3.09.82 which was three seconds better than her previous best. Fine tuning race skills performance has been an important focus for Jamie in the lead up to the SA State Age Short Course event in the second week of the school holidays.

South Australian State Team Member Bridie Mickan (10 years) also took advantage of the opportunity to practice her race skills in the lead up to the Pacific School Games held in November this year. Bridie added to her collection of swimming bling with a silver medal in the 10 and under 50m freestyle (37.99), a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle (1.27.48) and a bronze in the 50m backstroke (45.95).

Youngest members of the team; Evie Durdin (9 years) , Yarra Mickan (8 years) and Asta Mickan (6 years) all performed really well and enjoyed the opportunity to race in a new environment. Every pool presents the challenge to adapt to different starting blocks and check turning distances from the wall and for swimmers new to competition racing this add to pre-race nerves. Evie bettered both her 50m freestyle (48.18) and backstoke (56.06) times and created official times for her 100m races in both strokes. Yarra knocked two seconds off his 50m freestyle to record a 47.55, three seconds of his 100m backstroke (2.03.23) and five seconds off his 100m freestyle (1.53.23). At only 6 years of age Asta managed herself responsibly in marshalling and was able to set a new time in the 100m backstroke (2.27.94), record a personal best in the 50 backstroke (1.10.07) and come very close to her existing benchmark in the 50m freestyle (1.00.14).

The Playford Aquatic Club meet was certainly a worthwhile addition to the club’s competition calendar. It was well supported by many metropolitan and country swimming clubs, offered a very competitive field, attracted plenty of sponsorship from local businesses, included excellent food and catering and ran particularly smoothly. The meet enabled West Coast swimmers to evaluate their current winter training regime and re-evaluate their competition goals leading into the summer swimming carnival season.