Our Western Australian Multi-Class swimmers have performed brilliantly over in Adelaide for the Australian Para and Australian Age Swimming Championships!
With the 2022 Australian Para Swimming Championships taking place between April 9-13th and with the Australian Age Championships currently underway from April 11-18th, nine WA Multi-Class athletes in total headed across to the city of churches to battle it out against the rest of Australia. Here are some of the best moments!
Making his mark on the Australian stage was the ‘Bunbury Bullet,’ Alex Saffy. The 16-year-old prodigy (S9) clocked a mind-boggling 57.98 seconds in the Men’s 100m butterfly final, slashing a remarkable 1.20 seconds off his personal best time.
The amazing result means the Bunbury Swimming Club star has made his first Australian Para World Championships team and is the sole rookie member on the 2022 Dolphins squad!
Saffy will head over with the team of 21 athletes to Madeira, Portugal and compete between June 12-18th, with the potential to race in more events! Congratulations to you Alex, along with your incredible coaches Stephen Staffy, Mickie Castieu and Elisha Hunt at Bunbury Swimming Club!
Tegan Reder, S11, from UWA West Coast also had one of the best meets of her career despite only swimming competitively for less than five years.
The visually impaired psychology student was determined to take home her first national gold medal in the Girls 17-18yrs 100m breastroke. Not only did Reder achieve her dreams and claim gold, but she also added the Girls 17-18yrs 50m breastroke gold to her name in a personal best time of 42.42 seconds!
To put icing on the cake, Reder also snagged a silver medal in the Australian Para Swimming Championships in the open category Women’s 50m breastroke in a time of 43.69 seconds, while also claiming bronze in the Girls 17-18yrs 50m freestyle in a personal best time of 35.03 seconds.
Her incredible performance means she walks away from the championships with a medal of every colour! Congratulations Tegan and to your amazing coach, Rob Palfery from UWA West Coast.
Alexey Ulupov, 13, from Kwinana Swimming Club just loves shattering Australian Age records. Nicknamed ‘King Alexey,’ the young talent unofficially smashed yet another Boys 13/U S5 Australian Age Multi Class Record in the 100m backstroke, taking the previous record of 3:30.55 down by over 100 seconds to 1:49.66!
His record run didn’t stop there. Ulupov then went on to unofficially break his own Australian Age record again in the Boys 13/U 100m freestyle, slashing it down from 1:53.88 to a brilliant 1:51.83. Take a bow Alexey along with your coach, Lucky Weerakkody and the team at Kwinana Swimming Club!
Western Australia was very well represented by our remaining Multi Class National Age athletes, including Bel Dabic (Bunbury), Mikayla Keenan (Arena), Zachary McCamley (Arena), Alexey Ulupov (Kwinana), Tegan Reder (UWA West Coast), Jordan Berryman (UWA West Coast) and Ryan Peake (Peel Aquatic).
Calling Bel Dabic’s meet busy would be an understatement! The 14-year-old from Bunbury (S19) competed in the Girls 12-14yrs 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m breastroke, 200m medley, 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 200m freestyle. That’s commitment!
Well done on your performance Bel and to the Bunbury Swim Club coaches, Mickie Castieau, Martin van Rooyen, Lennee Diggins, Sharon Coughlan and Stephen Saffy!
Mikayla Keenan also performed exceptionally well in a busy meet, the 12-year-old from Arena Swimming Club (S19) belted out four great swims in the Girls 12-14yrs 50m freestyle, 50m breastroke, 50m butterfly and 100m breastroke. Nice work Mikayla!
Her Arena Swim Club teammate in Zachary McCamley (S19) had a great meet, setting personal best times in all of his four events in the Boys 12-14yrs 50m breastroke, 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. Great work Zachary and well done to all Arena coaches, Simon Redmond, Fiona Njirich, Paolo Da Silva, Renae Lambourne, Rod Bonsack and Angus Clouston!
Jordan Berryman (S14) from UWA West Coast also had a sensational performance at her first every National Age Championships.
Berryman competed in the Girls 15-16yrs 100m breastroke, 100m butterfly, 200m medley, 50m butterfly, 50m breastroke and 400m freestyle, placing inside the top eight numerous times.
She also finished narrowly outside the medals in fourth place in the Open Women’s 50m breastroke final, behind eventual winner and teammate, Tegan Reder! Congratulations Jordan on an amazing first nationals and well done to your coach, Brett Tongue!
Ryan Peake from Peel Aquatic also made the most of his one event entered! The 15-year-old (S19) competed in the Boys 12-15yrs 400m freestyle, taking a whopping 19-seconds off his personal best time and touching in 6:06.46. Well done Ryan and great work to all the coaches guiding you at Peel Aquatic, including Matt, Kate Chaisty, Karen Vlastuin and Mackenzie Logan!
Stay tuned next week for our full recap article of the 2022 Australian Age Championships and don't forget, you can stream the entire meet for free on Amazon Prime Video! Just visit their site and search 'swimming' to find the session you want to watch!
