"When I go out and race, I'm not trying to beat opponents, I'm
To celebrate our final Point Score event of the year the West Coast Swimming Club awarded five individuals with Swimmer of the Month awards for November and December. Congratulations to Lauren Nicholls and Kellie Dennis who have both represented our club at recent Open Carnivals and demonstrated their dedication to training, improvements in their personal performances and great support of their team mates. Congratulations also to Henry Nelligan, Kilani Coleman - Smith and Stuart Mesecke. They are courageous and focused swimmers at point score and open carnivals and are prepared to put in the hard work necessary to develop competitive times over 50 and 100m distances. Their personal bests times continue to drop and it will be a rewarding moment to see if any or all of these boys will make the final cut to be able to represent the Lower Eyre Peninsula for SAPSASA in March next year. With less than 4 weeks to go, the heat is now on with swimmers launching into final preparations for the 2013 South Australian Country Championships. It is vital that swimmers maintain their commitment to training, attention to rest and recovery between training and careful nutrition to enable their performance on the day to reflect the investment of time and energy they have made. Swimming supports the development of personal belief in your own abilities, confidence to perform under pressure, self discipline and commitment to achieving a goal. All of our young athletes appreciate the opportunity to learn these life long lessons with the support of coaching staff, their parents and older competitors. The program of events had a special focus on allowing swimmers to finalise their qualifying times for the Country Championships in light of the radical changes that were implemented by Swimming SA only a few weeks prior. In some instances qualifying times over 100m dropped by 11 seconds creating a great deal of anxiety and frustration in amongst the club for those families who had originally met the qualifying standards. Many of our swimmers continue to maintain their steady rate of improvement and it is well worth club members reflecting on some of our early point score results to track how significant this has been for some individuals. Coen George began the season swimming his 50m freestyle in 38.47, but now is close to 3 seconds faster at 35.78 making the 10 fastest freestylers competing at Point Score. Similarly Max Lambert began the season posting a 50m freestyle time of 36.01, however blitzed the pool on Friday to register a 33.53. To top off the noteable performances by our 12 year old boys - Kieran Stephans registered a 36.63 to kick off the season and is now at a 34.25. Another mover in the freestyle has been Cameron Akehurt who is exceptional close to making a 36! Friday night he recorded a time of 37 dead which is 3 seconds faster than he was swimming in June. This improvement has still been achieved despite careful management of a shoulder injury. Cooper Perham has made up plenty of ground over the season thus far with his time of 40.46 a massive 6 seconds faster than in June. He will be looking to join Harrison and Cameron in making a time in under the 40 second mark over the 50m freestyle the next time we race. Jasmine Clark posted a time of 48.37 to kick off the season but is now an incredible 5 seconds faster in the 50m freestyle (43.53) and could clearly aim for a sub 40 second time prior to the conclusion of summer. Determination to improve is evident from the gutsy swims Victoria Henderson has been pushing out. She swam the 50m freestyle in 43.83 and 50m butterfly in 52.18. Competition in this age group is tight with Maya Lloyd and Taleah Milton making some great advances in time. Both swam the 50m freestyle in 47 seconds (47.62 and 47.78 respectively) Maya followed up her freestyle swim with an excellent breastroke race coming in under the minute mark on 56.27 making her the fastest 10 year old on the night, in this event. Most of our senior swimmers took the chance to review their 200 Individual Medley time and Luke Andrews set the benchmark at 2.29.31. With careful consideration of a wining race plan Luke could create an upset in this event as well and claim a Country Record which has held firm since 1989 (14 years). He will need to beat a time of 2.25.11 at the Country Championships to take the honours from Blue Lake Y swimmer - Damien Burns. To finish off the night superfish Charlee Watt showed us just what is possible as she is now able to push out a 50m butterfly at just 7 years of age. She completed her event in a personal best of three seconds since her last swim (1.45.00). All of the results and improvements from Point Score are available on www.westcoastswimmingclub.com Club members also take note of our holiday training calendar which has been made available via email. Junior swimmers begin their time with our club as a natural progression from development through the Port Lincoln Leisure Centre Swim School or through identification during school swimming programs. Our club is supported by a vibrant and active group of committee members who, like their children love the sport of swimming. "Susie had no talent whatsoever. She's a little person who couldn't even make a final at a state
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With the tide running quickly in the Upper Spencer Gulf, the return swimming trek underneath the old Port Augusta train bridge, vehicle traffic bridge and back along the Port Augusta Warf to the starting point on the pontoon in front of the Port Augusta Yacht Club, was challenging to say the least. In the words of one of the competitors "It was like swimming on a treadmill". The water temperature was pleasant and wind conditions favourable for the annual 1800m Port Augusta Long Swim hosted by the Port Augusta Swimming Club following their Open Carnival on the day prior. Three brave members of the West Coast Swimming Club participated in the event; Brooke Traeger, Sonia and Tommy Ford. Congratulations on a magnificent swim from Brooke, taking out the fastest female prize in 28minutes and 24 seconds finishing second over the line. Tommy Ford (11 years) also showed he has the courage to brave the open ocean swimming events finishing in 35minutes and 27 seconds; a clear 2 minutes in front of his somewhat embarrassed mother and open water veteran, Sonia Ford (37.12). The oldest competitor on the day was 80 year old Port Augusta Swimming Club member Gerald Kirkham who competed in his 55th event - finishing the race in 45minutes and 18 seconds.
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers or reservoirs. The equipment allowed in a race depends on the race organizers. For example, races may have divisions for wetsuits and/or relays; may require escort boats or kayakers; and may require specifically coloured swim caps. Swimming South Australia has a significant number of sanctioned open water events which are tackled by swimmers of all ages. The Port Lincoln Triathlon Club also holds regular events involving swimming in open water. More information can be found at: www.westcoastswimmingclub.com/open-water-swimming.html Port Augusta Swimming Carnival was attended by a large contingent of swimmers from both our Port Lincoln and Ceduna branches on Saturday 1st of December. An eventful trip up to Port Augusta was safely negotiated by all our families despite severe thunderstorms which upended trees and flooded numerous Whyalla streets. To say that the swimmers arrived excited to compete was an understatement, considering how incredible the ride up was - they were definitely hyped for some special performances. It was wonderful to see so many of our younger families taking the time to spend a weekend away swimming and enjoying the achievements of their children. The improvement in race confidence of these younger swimmers is remarkable and their resilience in the face of rule infractions commendable. It is definitely a steep learning curve when the finer details of racing need to be mastered and it can be daunting when a referee announces that you have been disqualified. Listen carefully to your coaches and ask for clarification, talk to club captains and senior swimmers and watch our older swimmers technique carefully to understand what is acceptable for each stroke. There is certainly a lot to learn! Following a bronze medal for the West Coast in the 14 and under Medley Relay the first individual medal of the day went to superfish Moet McCathie with a silver medal swim in the 50m freestyle event (40.38). Moet went on to win a further two medals - bronze in the 50m backstroke (48.54) narrowly being edged out by team mate Jamie Ford (48.27) who took out the silver, and silver in the 50m butterfly in a fantastic time of 51.90. This was Moet's first open carnival and she did herself proud with an awesome set of achievements. Next to medal was the ever determined Harrison Adams who took out silver in the boys 50m freestyle (37.44). He added to his tally with another silver in the 50m backstroke (48.26), and a bronze in the 50m breastroke (58.02). His swim of the day was his final butterfly race with the reward being the gold (51.05), showing that this enthusiasm and dedication in attending morning and afternoon swimming training sessions is reaping dividends. Swimming in the same age group with just as much enthusiasm for the sport is Kilani Coleman - Smith. He was justifiably proud of his efforts - taking home his first ever swimming medals. A magnificent 50m breastroke (57.22) secured the silver medal whilst his time of 1.07.22 in the 50m butterfly was worthy of a bronze. Kilani managed a huge program on the day, swimming all 50m scratch, 100m scratch, handicap and team swims to the best of his ability, staying organised and positive for the duration of the meet.
The team loved having its youngest team members on board for the carnival. 8 year olds Lily Nicholls and Sophie Traeger. Lily had some cracker swims, showing enormous potential for the future. It is a credit to her family for supporting her to become such a competent swimmer at such a young age. She recorded a 51.77 for her 50m freestyle, a 58.09 for her 50m backstroke, a 1.04.63 for her 50m breastroke and a 1.08.74 for her 50m butterfly. She is definitely one to watch! Sophie Traeger drew plenty of support from the team as she progressed through to the final of the 50m BBB (butterfly, backstroke or breastroke) handicap final. Dodging thunderstorms which threatened to halt the carnival, Sophie was as proud as punch to take home the silver medal in this event. In a repeat of the last weekend's tussle for first place in Roxby Downs, Brooke Traeger and Natasha Hammond ensured they would not be giving up a placing lightly. Brooke very narrowly edged out Natasha in the freestyle by a matter of a 10th of a second. Brooke finished the race winning the gold medal in a time of 31.31 and Natasha with the silver in 31.46. Similarly in the 100m breastroke the team mates were within the slightest touch of one another, Brooke finishing in second place in 1.41.80 and Natasha in third place in 1.41.99. Both competitors showed great team leadership in the organisation of pre warm up stretches and in supporting younger swimmers to marshal correctly. Congratulations to Lauren Nicholls who produced some great times on the day in the 11 - 12 year old girls age group. She has now broken the 40 second mark for the 50m freestyle to record a new personal best of 39.44. She also recorded a personal improvement in her 50m breastroke finishing in 56.38 seconds. Also swimming in this age group were Tascha Jordison, Yemaya Coleman - Smith, Kelli Dennis, Alleigh Hamnett and Brookyln George and the girls will be facing some tight competition in the lead up to the team being finalised for SAPSASA early next year. They supported one another well and have gained important race experience. Longer swims were also on offer on the day with Brooklyn George being chuffed with her time over the 200m breastroke (4.08.27). Similarly Emma Hamnett managed a significant personal best in 4.16.23. Tommy Ford looked at ease over the 200m backstroke (3.26.42) enjoying the chance to practice maintaining an even keel when swimming backwards in an outdoor pool. A hearty congratulation to all of the team who attended the Port Augusta Carnival - many swimmers walked away with individual and team awards together with personal best achievements and a better understanding of competitive swimming rules. A full listing of results can be found at www.westcoastswimmingclub.com 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. Members of the West Coast Swimming Club held an exciting point score event at the Port Lincoln Leisure Centre on Friday 16thof November which gave swimmers another important opportunity to post personal best times towards gauging the success of their training and improvements in personal fitness. Over 50 swimmers
ere registered for the evenings competition travelling from Lock, Tumby Bay and Cummins to have the chance to build their own personal sense of achievement and competency to swim at a competitive level. A resonating comment from one of our parents on the night was, “My daughter swims because she feels a real sense of achievement and pride in herself when she posts a personal best time – it’s quite underwater and she can concentrate on doing her best without her team mates or people yelling at her from the sidelines.” And WOW what a night for posting personal bests! Two goals that had been set from the last point score were to see Henry Lambert post a 50m freestyle time in under the current SA Country Record (held by Levi Proude) and Jade Calverly edge closer to the 1 minute mark for her 50m backstroke which would lower her potential world ranking, towards developing times good enough to see her in a Paralympic final in 2016. Two very excited swimmers left the water after their events, Henry Lambert with a 26.87 for his 50m freestyle (which would be good enough to break the existing record) and Jade Calverly with a 1.01.07 for her 50m backstroke which when compared to world rankings sees her 7th internationally and was nearly 3 seconds faster than her performance at last month’s event. Australian Paraylmpian Tanya Huebner (S6) has posted a time of 53.96 sec over this distance (7.11 sec faster) which is something Jade could put some serious thought into achieving considering her three second improvement in time over the past month. Two killer swims from breastroke specialist Luke Andrews over both the 50m and 200m distance yielded some very exciting results. His 200m breastroke swim of 2.40.34 was well under the Australian Age Qualifying time of 2.51.50 (15 year old) and within 9 seconds of qualifying for the Australian Open Swimming Championships (qualification must be in a 50m pool). He has improved a massive 10 seconds from the last time he swam in this event. This time is also clearly under the South Australian Open Country Record of 2.43.12. Similarly his 50m breastroke time was a personal best – 32.83 seconds, which is already close to two seconds faster than the existing country record (Levi Proude 34.37 – 50m pool). Luke could potentially give Ryan Mitchell’s South Australian 15 year old record a shakeup (31.29 – 50m pool) by the time the Country Championships are run. This is a record which has stood for over 10 years (set in 1993). Ryan Mitchell – originally a swimmer with the Port Augusta Swimming Club went on to win a silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as part of the 4 x 100m Medley Relay Team. We welcome new swimmer Gerard Meyer who has provided another layer of depth to our senior swimming talent. Gerard posted times of 30.87 (50 freestyle), 40.48 (50m breastroke) and 37.51 (50m butterfly). It was fantastic to see Sheridan and Kendall Howell back in the water in preparation for our summer racing season, both posting very competitive times in all of their events. Both Natasha Hammond and Brooke Traegar swam great freestyle times –both on the 30 second mark which puts them with a great chance at the 13 year old South Australian Country Record (long course) of 30.10 seconds. Nik Constantinopoulos blasted out a great 50m freestyle (31.73) to set himself a new personal best and Harrison Adams tore up the pool in 38.10 to post the fastest 10 and under time. A real stand out personal best ‘smasher’ was Jack O’Donnell (10 years) who made some outstanding improvements across all of his events with both his freestyle (53.63) and breastroke (1.09.47) races up to 10 seconds faster than when he has raced previously at point score. Kilani Colman – Smith swam a superb 50m breastroke race (55.63) knocking over 6 seconds off his previous time and at 9 years of age was competitive against swimmers up to two years older than himself. Similarly in his 50 Butterfly he shaved off 7.47 seconds (1.06.60) Sisters Tayla and Indiah Kelsey had a very close tussle in the same 50m breastroke event with the younger of the two Tayla (8 years) edging out her older sister by .3 of a second (Tayla 1.07.60, Indiah 1.07.99) Stuart Meske made a great improvement in his 50m backstoke - amazingly swimming nearly 7 seconds faster than he had previously (53.38) and it won’t be long before we see him posting times in the 40 second bracket. The 50m butterfly event provided a powerful finish to the evening with coach Jason Dipaolo going head to head with Luke Andrews – the competition spurred Luke onto a personal best but just being edged out by Jason who swam the race in 30.18 sec. Zac Kenny (9 years) swam a super 50 Fly in (1.02.97) and it was very encouraging to see lots of our junior swimmers now with the skill and determination to be able to post times in this event. Well done to Charlee Watt (7 years) and Alleigh Hamnett who competing in this event for the first time. Thanks to those parents who have supported their children’s ability to swim competently by bringing them along for their first point score. Great work - Indiana Copland, Tascha and Fraser Jordison, Thomas Kammermann and Kayla Huntley. All swimmers are encouraged to make a record of their own personal best achievements over each stroke and distance. An efficient way of doing this is through an Iphone App called ‘PB Go’ this enables championship cards to be created with a record of your top 5 times, including a location and date. As nominations for swimming carnivals require accurate and up to date personal best records it is in your best interest to establish a regular and reliable way of recording your PB’s. More information on ‘PB Go’ is available on the website www.westcoastswimmingclub.com– Latest News. PB Go encourages young athletes to strive for their personal best in the pool. Have fun creating your own set of champion cards.
Here is an engaging way to store your Personal Best Times - I have tried a few different app's like this for my iphone and so far this one seems the most practical. Here's why I like it: ++ Trading card style design which is attractive and engaging to kids ++ You can email them as a picture from your phone. ++They store your top 5 times over any distance with a place to record the place (meet) and date that you recorded this time (Makes it alot easier to fill in those nomination forms for carnivals - PB's at your fingertips!) ++ You can upload a photo to the front of the card. ++ Easy to select events using the classic scrolling tool - trademark iphone technology ++ You can store more than one swimmer on the same phone There are features I haven't tried yet - you can export your PB's to excel for inclusion in a spreadsheet, there are celebration animations which sound cool too! You can download this app for $1.99 from the Itunes store via the link below. Swimmers again flexed their muscles at the West Coast Swimming Club’s most recent Point Score Event held on the 19th of October at the Port Lincoln Leisure Centre. Preparations are now in full swing for the summer racing season with swimmers having registered to compete at events in Roxby Downs, Crystal Brook and Port Augusta over the coming month. These are crucial events to chart competitors’progress towards qualification for the 2013 Country Swimming Championships, State and National Championships; all of which require official qualifying times to be achieved some months prior to the event.
Swimmers of the month were also awarded for September and October with congratulations to Ellie McInerney and Coen George (September) and Chris Bawden and Issy Scott (October). All of these swimmers have shown a dedication to attending and participating to their fullest during training sessions – respecting and rising to the challenges that their coaches have presented them with. The West Coast Swimming Club would like to acknowledge the support of McDonalds Port Lincoln for providing these incentive prizes. Stand out performances from point score firstly go to Henry Nelligan who swam an incredible 50m butterfly event to finish in 58.53 seconds – a massive improvement of 12.47 seconds on the last time he competed in the same race, and breaking the prized minute marker over this distance. Asha Edwards posted some amazing improvements in all 4 of the 50m events – one up to 20 seconds faster than previously recorded. She recorded the fastest time of the 11 year old female competitors in the backstroke (48.76). A wickedly fast swim from Yemaya Coleman – Smith in the 50 freestyle (36.13) saw her celebrating a new personal best with further improvements expected prior to the Country Championships. There is the potential for Yemaya to start edging towards the current South Australian Country Record for this event which is set at 32.78 seconds – only 3.35 seconds away. Jade Calverly was similarly very excited following her 50m backstroke swim with a 4 second personal best, edging her ever closer to going down under the minute mark over this distance (1.03.60). As a member of the Australian Youth Development Team for the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Jade is currently chasing a world ranking over a number of events. Racing against multiclass swimmers of the same classification internationally her time in this event currently has her ranked 9th . Breaking the minute mark could see her make a Paralympic final and down under 50 seconds in possible medal contention. Brooke Traeger is continuing to build fitness and held a great time over the 100m freestyle of 1.08.62. Xanthia Clark is clocking up plenty of pool miles and recorded a great improvement in all of her 50 m events – particularly her 50m freestyle (39.65) and 50m butterfly (53.00). Unstoppable Harrison Adams also blitzed the pool again in the 100m freestyle recording a time of 1.29.44 – as a 10 year old he will now be working on shaving off another 6 seconds to swim under the qualifying time of 1.22.81 set for the 11 and under age group at the Country Championships. Max Lambert swam an impressive butterfly race recording a personal best of 44.49 narrowly being beaten by the butterfly master Coen George (43.01). In fact all of our senior swimmers posted improvements which is just the motivation needed as they prepare to race in Roxby Downs, Crystal Brook and Port Augusta. Henry Lambert topped the 50m freestylers in an electric time of 27.47 seconds. The 14 year old current South Australian Country Male record is held by fellow West Coast Swimmer Levi Proude – set in Broken Hill (27.18) and Henry could give this record a real shake up in his next competition. To finish the evenings racing the 200m individual medley event was offered with Kellie Dennis, Victoria Henderson and Yemaya Coleman – Smith all to be congratulated for competing over this distance for the first time. The West Coast Swimming Club has also named their club captains for the 2012 / 2013 season. Congratulations to male co-captains Henry Lambert and Luke Andrews and female leaders Brooke Traeger (Captain) and Annabelle Nelligan (Vice-Captain). The club would also like to extend its thanks to other community users of the Port Lincoln Leisure Centre who have taken the time to share how important the availability of a community pool is to the maintenance of their health, well-being and sense of personal pride in their fitness. We are currently collecting information on opportunities for our swimmers to apply for grants to offset the cost of travel, entry fees, uniforms etc. Check out the grants link and if you have additional information which you think would be accessible to swimmers at Country Championship level and above or for our Multiclass compeditors email your information together with the link to any online application forms to our publicity officer, Sonia Ford.
Members from the West Coast Swimming Club say that it is critical planning for the new pool facility begins now to ensure it will open before the current Port Lincoln Leisure Centre facility at the marina closes in 2015.
The facility, owned by Sarin Group, will shut its doors in 2015, but a new facility for Port Lincoln is yet to be on the table as was promised in the lead up to the last council election in 2010. The club's president Todd George said the process must begin now to prevent a gap of time between the current facility closing and the new pool opening its doors. "It's critical to get a timeframe now otherwise there's going to be that gap," he said. "With the timeline to when this pool closes, you're looking at a year to build and 12 to 18 months to plan. "There is no room for overlap." He said it was important to recognise that not only Port Lincoln swimmers would be affected, as people from Lock, Tumby Bay, Cummins, Cleve and even Ceduna came to the pool regularly. Members say of the 130 children registered at the swimming club, more than half are now swimming competitively. All 130 of the registered children use the facility at the leisure centre a minimum of one to two times a week. West Coast Swimming Club member Sonia Ford said the swimming club was yet to receive a progress report or any information about a new facility from the Port Lincoln City Council. "I would like to see the money committed and I would like to see a time frame," she said. "I, for one, won't live in Port Lincoln if there is not a pool. "That's how important swimming is for me." Mrs Ford said with two children swimming and a third now learning how to swim, she had already put in a decade of commitment to ensuring her children were swimming competitively. "I'm at the point of enjoying it now after 10 years," she said. "We are down here for four hours at a time. "The idea of having a joint use facility on an education site would be ideal ... and I think the solution is just around the corner. "It's done, we need it in writing now." Fellow member Anne-Marie Hammond said the importance of the pool stretched further than just competitive swimming, it was also about teaching children how to swim, which she said was crucial considering Port Lincoln's coastal location. "The most critical thing to do as a parent in your life is to teach your kid to swim." she said. Results have now been posted for the Lower Eyre Peninsula Primary Schools Carnival.
4 Records were broken on the day - congratulations to Jamie Ford, Indiana Copland and the St Josephs 12 year old girls and 11 year old boys. Girls 11 years 50m Breaststroke; Old Record-Natasha Hammond 51.96 / New Record - Indiana Copland 51.33 Girls 10 years 50m Backstroke; Old Record-Natasha Hammond 49.38 / New Record - Jamie Ford 47.63 11 years Boys Freestyle Relay; Old Record 3.00.81 / New Record St Joseph's 2.58.60 (Kasper Cummings, Kalani Coleman - Smith, Cooper Perham and Harrison Adams) 12 years Girls Freestyle Relay; Old Record 2.48.47 / New Record St Joseph's 2.42.29 (Kellie Dennis, Brooklyn George, Lauren Nicholls and Yemaya Coleman - Smith) For the 7th year running St Joseph’s School have produced the highest overall points score at the Lower Eyre Peninsula Primary Schools Swimming Carnival to win the Sarin Group Shield. Lock Area School took out the Chris Wareing Memorial Handicap Shield for the second year running in a close tussle with Navigator College. In a magnificent display of our school communities love for the sport of swimming, approximately 200 children participated in the day’s events with many experiencing their first taste of competitive racing. Through the support of Swimming SA, Swimming Australia and corporate sponsor Energy Australia the West Coast Swimming Club were able to register the occasion as a Come and Try ‘GOSWIM’ event, leveraging a visit from Australia’s most successful Paralympian, Matt Cowdrey and State Performance Coach, Paul Dennis. Swimmers were thrilled to be able to interact with Matt; have ‘GOSWIM’ swimming caps, posters and even shoes signed by him as well as posing for special photos holding one of his 13 Paralympic gold medals. Records tumbled during the day with two individual and two team records being rewritten. Congratulations to Indiana Copland from Tumby Bay Area School who set a new 11 year old girls 50 metre breastroke record in 51.33 seconds and Jamie Ford whose backstroke time of 47.63 seconds saw a new record for the 10 year old girls. In fact this time was also faster than the current 11 year old girls’ record of 48.07. Monster swims from two of the St Joseph’s School teams made new records in the 11 year old boys and 12 year old girls categories. We are all super proud of boys Kasper Cummings, Kalani Coleman-Smith, Cooper Perham and Harrison Adams and girls Kellie Dennis, Brooklyn George, Lauren Nicholls and Yemaya Coleman – Smith. James Andrews competed in his final Primary School Carnival and in stella style won every individual and team event that he entered –walking away with seven first place ribbons. His stand out swim was his 50 metre freestyle where he blitzed the pool in 31.24 seconds. Closest tussle for first place on the day goes to 13 year old girls Stella Reidy and Maddy Izzo who finished every 50m race within half a second of one another. Maddy topped Stella in the freestyle, breastroke (by 100thof a second) and backstroke with Stella out touching Maddy in the butterfly. In the 13 year old boys Max Lambert was an impressive performer with first placings in freestyle (32.88 sec), breastroke (45.09) and backstroke (41.31) with an upset in the butterfly event with powerhouse Coen George declaring victory in 41.35 seconds. The 13 year old girls category saw a different winner in each stroke. Freestyle was won by Rose O’Donnell (38.28 sec). Breastroke winner was Lila Watson (51.55 sec), backstroke was Alleigh Hamnett (48.85 sec) and butterfly was Chloe Hall (45.64 sec). 12 year old girls events were all taken out by champion of the future Yemaya Coleman-Smith who also went on to represent St Joseph’s in three winning relay teams walking away with 7 first place ribbons in total. She swam impressive times on the day; freestyle (35.93 sec), breastroke (50.33 sec), backstroke (44.54 sec) and butterfly (43.37 sec). Tommy Ford dominated the 12 year old boys events with long time breastroke rival Issac Grimma pipping him at the post in his pet event (56.70 sec). The 11 year old girls saw a fantastic winning freestyle swim from Isabella Scott (40.77 sec), a record breaker in the breastroke by Indiana Copland (51.33 sec) and confident wins by Victoria Henderson in the backstroke (49.69 sec) and butterfly (51.92 sec). Energy and enthusiasm for the sport of swimming overflowed from our 11 year old boys with Harrison Adams taking out he butterfly (53.65 sec), backstroke (47.78 sec) and freestyle (37.00 sec) while Cameron Akehurst secured his victory in the breastroke (57.18 sec) from Max Black of Cummins. 10year old girl Jamie Ford followed her record breaking backstroke swim with wins in the freestyle (42.34) and butterfly (58.63) with 9 year old Sophie Traeger edging out Jamie by three tenths of a second in the breastroke (Sophie – 1.03.17). Finally the 10 year old boys saw Zac Kenny and Taj Edwards take out the honours. Taj won the freestyle (50.00) and backstroke (1.02.53) while Zac won the breastroke (1.02.29) and butterfly (1.03.71). The West Coast Swimming Club would like to thank those spectators who took time out of their busy schedules to support our swimmers –the Port Lincoln Leisure Centre was filled to its capacity and overwhelmingly demonstrated the value that the wider Eyre Peninsula Community put on a facility like this. We look forward to hearing the announcement from the Port Lincoln City Council as to its firm financial commitment to a new centre so that a spectacular event such as this can continue to inspire our young athletes towards a lifetime of health and fitness. The atmosphere on the day was electric and the dedication and patience of school staff in preparing and organising their respective teams on the day was to be admired. We would also like to thank the volunteer time keepers from Port Lincoln High School whose assistance was highly valued and senior swimmers from the club who helped in the smooth running of the race marshalling process. |
AUTHORSonia Ford is our publicity officer and would love to hear of noteworthy news items from our swimming community! |