The final day of competition at the highly anticipated 2019 Swimming WA Junior Short Course Championships took place on Sunday 22 September. After a long winter season, spectators, coaches and officials were graced with a great day of competition as the next generation of WA swimming stars took to the water at HBF Stadium to battle for the title of 2019 Junior Champion.
The weekend so far produced some amazing accomplishments from both individuals and teams with many records smashed.
Some of the highlights from day 2 include;
The incredibly resilient and versatile Katie Otway (Southside Penrhos Wesley) finished off an extraordinary meet with seven individual events throughout Sunday’s session. Otway recorded a remarkable 120 points throughout the championships and claimed 15 medals, 11 of which were Gold. At only 11 years of age, Otway well and truly highlighted her name as not only one of the best young swimmers in the state but also a very exciting prospect for years to come.
The Girls 11-year-old 100m Freestyle saw a pool of talent take to the water as sprint stars and distance queens collided to create one of the best races of the meet. Bridgette Brodalka (Breakers) dominated the race, with an all-time performance that saw her break the WA Residential, WA All Time and WA All Comer record as she touched the wall in 1:00.45. The battle for the minor medals was equally as exciting as Isabella Russell (St Hilda’s) stormed home to touch before Kaci Curtis (South Lake Dolphins) in 1:03.31 and 1:04.03 respectively. UWA-West Coast’s Bianca Petsos, showed her versatility managing to narrowly miss bronze after an epic performance in the Girls 11 – 12 Years 800m Freestyle on Saturday afternoon.
Charlie Spencer (Guildford Kalamunda) had another incredible day of the competition winning gold in the Boys 10-years-old 200m Freestyle, 100m Individual Medley, 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle. The four golds won today, brings Spencer’s total medal tally for the meet to eight gold, an incredible feat by the 10-year-old who remarkably, remained unbeaten over the entire weekend.
Once again, the Swimming WA Junior Short Course Championships finished with a bang as the Girls 11 -12 Years 4x50m Freestyle relay delivered a spectacular show for spectators. Breakers was out incredibly fast through a dominant lead leg from Bridgette Brodalka. However, it was an incredibly tight battle throughout the race with UWA-West Coast and St Hilda’s fighting for the chance to claim one last gold medal. Unfortunately for the rest of the field Isabella Russell (St Hilda’s) was too strong and stormed home to close out another outstanding championship.
With all these fantastic individual achievements we also have to recognise the overall achievement of the clubs. Congratulations to UWA-West Coast and Mandurah for claiming the highest club point scores throughout the meet for the Metropolitan and Regional clubs respectively. The top three club scores are as follows;
Metropolitan
1. UWA West Coast
2. St Hilda’s
3. Southside Penrhos Wesley
Regional
1. Mandurah
2. Peel Aquatic
3. Geraldton / Bunbury
As the 2019 Short Course season comes to a close, you can’t help but feel the excitement. We now move forward to a jam-packed summer season that will not only feature the exhilaration of our usual local season and additionally will provide the chance for Australia’s best to showcase their ability at the 2019 Asia-Pac Super Splash, as well as the 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Age Swimming Championships and the 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Club Championships.
All this and much more as we carry on the #roadtotokyo.
Swimming WA
Results attached below.
