Kai Watson (Bronze Medal National Open Water Championships) & Jasmine Blank (Bronze Medal Brisbane Sprint Championships)
As always the first few months of the year are extremely busy for our swimmers who have not only been competing at a club level but also competing in their school, district and regional carnivals.
This season our swimmers have been performing consistently in all the regional championship meets which has seen the club on top of the first division table with one competition left in the season. The club secured second place overall in the Brisbane Relay championships which was a great improvement on previous years and goes to show the depth of talent coming through the club. The Brisbane Sprint Championships again showcased our up and coming swimmers with Jasmine Blank winning Bronze in the girls 9yrs Breaststroke.
In February we had 5 swimmers represent the club at the Age National Open Water Championships held at Mooloolaba. In the girls we had Kristen Wallace who finished 6th in 17yrs 5km and Bridie Eskdale who finished 16th in 13yrs 5km. In the boys Kyle Wallace finished 36th in 15yrs 5km and in the 13yrs 5km Kai Watson finished 3rd and Ben Garozzo was unfortunately unable to finish due to sickness. With the conditions far from perfect these kids showed great determination to complete the course.
The first weekend in March the club again held its annual Copper Coast A Grade Meet where we had a solid attendance from 22 clubs with 191 swimmers competing. This is one of the club’s major fundraisers for the year. Again everyone pitched in to make it a successful carnival.
The club has 7 swimmers travelling to Adelaide at Easter for the Age National Swimming Championships competing in 17 events between them. This is the most swimmers the club has had qualify in over 5 years. The Age Nationals is the event that all swimmers aim to qualify for each year and is the pinnacle of the sport. The club wishes our swimmers every success during their week of competition.
Andrew Speedie
Race Secretary
redlandsswimracing@gmail.com
www.redlands.swimming.org.au