Alice Springs Swimming Club excels at NT Short Course Championships
THE future looks bright for talented young swimmers in Alice Springs after the Swimming Club cleaned up at the NT Short Course Championships in Darwin.
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THE future looks bright for talented young swimmers in Alice Springs after the Swimming Club cleaned up at the Northern Territory Short Course Championships in Darwin.
Full of exuberance, the team finished 4th out of seven teams, had an exceptional 86 per cent PB rate, broke ten Club records and brought home 12 medals, one gold, three silver and eight bronze.
Head Coach Emily Knott was happy to be back racing in Darwin.
“After the COVID shutdown and interruptions to how we would usually prepare for a major meet, all swimmers managed to use the training that we had been able to do to put together some great swims,” Ms Knott said.
“It was exciting to see every swimmer do great personal best times and to have four swimmers break club records – some of which have been standing for 20 years.”
RESULTS
Ben Bloomer, 11, won three medals, 1st 200m IM, 2nd 100m breaststroke and 3rd 50m breaststroke.
Bloomer shaved over ten seconds off his 200m IM time to power home in 2:59.09 seconds and showed his versatility with big improvements in backstroke and butterfly events.
Lilly Bloomer, 14, broke four Club records: 200m backstroke, 200m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke and 100m IM.
Competing against senior swimmers, Bloomer held her own and won two bronze medals in the 200m breaststroke 3:03.80 and 200m backstroke 2:46.28.
If the Championships were held in age groups Anthony Knott, 10, would have won all eight of his events.
Competing against junior swimmers aged 9-12 years, Knott finished 4th in the 200m freestyle and 5th 200m IM in 3:04.16 breaking the Club record by four seconds.
Competing as a senior swimmer for the first time, Harrison Knott, 13, won two medals 2nd 800m freestyle 10:15.59 and third 1500m freestyle 19:37.12 smashing the Club records by over 20 seconds. Knott also broke the five minute barrier in the 400m freestyle finishing 4th in 4:58.94.
With an improvement of over ten seconds, JJ Siah, 11, briefly held the Northern Territory 100m IM record 1:24.66 before the record was once again broken.
Siah set three new Club records 50m breaststroke 42.05, 100m breaststroke 1:31.02 and 100m IM, winning bronze in both breaststroke events.
With a silver, bronze and three fourth placings, Malachai Waterford, 12, was unlucky not to finish top three in all his events.
Waterford won silver in the 50m backstroke 37.58 and bronze in the 100m backstroke
1:23.53 in his first NT short course championships.
Koha Waterford, 10, will gain valuable experience competing in his first big meet.
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Waterford swam the 50m freestyle in 50.94 seconds and was a member of the boys relay team.
To top off the weekend the boys 9-12 years 100m freestyle relay team of Anthony Knott, Malachai Waterford, Ben Bloomer and Koha Waterford won bronze in an exciting finish over Nightcliff.
Swimmers are now focusing on the Katherine Carnival, the first of the top end long course meets, which will be held in October.
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