Geelong Swimming Club

Geelong Swimming Club Juniors Bag GOLD!

27 April 2007

A group of young swimmers from the Geelong Swimming Club (GSC) have burst onto the swimming stage winning a total of 13 medals (double the club’s medal count from last year’s event) when they competed at the recent All Junior Country - Finals Meet at Melbourne Sports Aquatic Centre (MSAC).

Competing in 50mt events against the best swimmers from around the state, a total of 21 GSC swimmers, aged from 9 to 14 years qualified for finals with 8 swimmers winning 13 medals between them.

Junior club coach, Carole Sparks and Head coach, John Beckworth were thrilled with the results and attributed it to the enthusiastic, professional approach of all the junior swimmers, who had committed to additional training with the team of Geelong Swimming Club coaches in the weeks leading up to this major event.

Individual highlights included 9 yo Breanna Beckley winning gold in the BK and FR and silver in the FL. Harry Kershaw 10 yo, won gold in the FL and silver in the FR; 12 yo Millie Nelis won gold in the BR and a bronze in the FR. Silver medals also went to 10 yo Adam Phillips FL, 12 yo Isobel Lambden FR, 13 yo Andrew McColl BK and 14 yo Jack Kershaw FR. Other medallists included Bronze won by 11 yo Kailan Howard BR and Isobel Lambden BK.

Highlighting the hard work these juniors have put in over the season was the effort of Breanna Beckley and Harry Kershaw who took a combined 33 seconds off their 50mt Butterfly times from the same event in 2006.

“With our club representatives in Stephanie Taylor and Olivia Dalton returning from the recent National Age Championships held in Perth, the junior team was really motivated to perform well. It is the first time that many of our young swimmers have competed at the All Juniors at MSAC, so they were very excited. This ends the season on a real high note for us as we now have a six week break before training resumes again for next season” Sparks said.

Other finalists who represented the club were: Harry Dalton, Rowan Jobling, Tane Rabbas, Madelyn Sheridan, Jack Stekelenburg, Mitchell Norton, Alex Anderson, Ella Fenton, Alex Neerhut, Rachel Howard, Brittany Phillips, Digby Krastins and Grace Robinson.
Brock Norwood and Tyler Parkinson, who have joined the Geelong Swimming Club from Echuca, also produced impressive performances to achieve very fast personal best times at this meet as well.