National Swimming Championships 2019

Over the Easter School Holidays, the Australian Open and Age Championships were held in Adelaide. This is the elite level of competition for swimming and although Somerset had a couple of athletes who couldn’t attend, our representation by those that attended was excellent.

The National Open Championships were held in the first week of the holidays from Sunday 7 to Friday 12 April. Somerset was represented by CJ Licuanan (alumni), Blake Jones and James Roberts. CJ, having recently graduated from National Age swimming competed in the 100m Freestyle as well as the 50m Freestyle. In the 50m Freestyle, CJ placed third in the 18 to 19 years division. Blake competed in the 50m and 100m freestyle as well as the 50m Butterfly. Whilst James raced in the 50m and 100m freestyle finishing fourth in both events. These swimmers are now preparing for the World Championship Selection trials to be held in Brisbane in June.

The National Age Championships were then held from Monday 15 April to Monday 22 April and included two days of Multiclass Championship events from Sunday 21 April to Monday 22 April. Somerset had 10 swimmers attend the Championships including Ciara Fay, Ellena Perry, and Hugo Vitello. Leon Shiryama (17 years) narrowly missed the final of the boys 100m Butterfly finishing 11th, while Connor Borkowksy also narrowly missed making the final in his main event, the boys 16 years 200m Freestyle finishing 11th. Cameron Donovan swam very well finishing 6th in the boys 15 years 100m Breaststroke and 10th in the 200m Breaststroke. Tara Newton, swimming in her first National Championships finished fifth in the girls 13 to 14 years 1500m Freestyle event. Jorja Otto had an outstanding swim in the girls 13 years 100m Backstroke winning the event and finishing eighth in the 200m Backstroke. Jorja is the Aussie champion in the 100m backstroke! She swam to win the event in a time of 1.03.87. A new PB by two seconds!

In the multiclass events, Sebastine Du Preez finished fifth in the boys 11 to 14 years 50m and 100m Breaststroke and Andrew Parkinson (boys 17 to 18 years) finished fourth in the 50m Backstroke, fifth in the 100m Backstroke, fifth in the 100m Freestyle and ninth in the 200m Individual Medley. Somerset also fielded a team in the boys 14 to 17 years 4 x 100m Medley Relay who had a great swim finishing 17th out of a very strong field.

Well done to all of our swimmers and especially Jorja for her National Championship win. A big thank you also goes to the Somerset Team Managers as well as Coaches Matt, Chris and Ash.

Masters State Championships – April 2019

The Somerset Masters Swim Club had 2 competitors compete at the recent Queensland State Championships in Brisbane from 11 to 13 April. Shannon Emmett finished sixth in the 50m Breaststroke and fifth in the 100m Breaststroke in her age division while Alison Ross had an outstanding meet winning the 200m Butterfly, placing second in the 100m Butterfly and 400m Freestyle, third in the 800m Freestyle and fifth in the 200m Freestyle in her age category. Well done to these swimmers and our Masters Coach Greg in preparing these swimmers to race.

Some of our Masters swimmers also competed in the recent ocean swim, the Cooly Classic. Five swimmers won medals at the event being Wal Mayr, Nicole Munroe, Rebecca Newing, whilst Cate Jolley and Ken Newing won their event. Well done!