It has been an impressive few weeks for the University of Sydney’s Varsity Swim Program with athletes competing at the Winter State Champs and UniSport Australia Div 1 Nationals.
Over 20 (21) individual swimmers represented Sydney University at the Winter State Champs on August 24-26 and September 8-9, six of whom are from the Varsity Program.
The Varsity swimmers produced an amazing effort, with eight of the thirteen swims spanning across five of the six swimmers, plus notching top ten finishes, two of which were podium finishes.
Of the 56 individual swims, the group hit 59% PBs, with 33 new best times being set.
A special mention must go to Robert Kanaley for his monstrous effort to go a neat 7/7 PBs across the entire weekend, swimming his way to his first ever State Top 10 result in the 100 backstroke.
Below is a list of all top 10 finishes from the weekend:
- 1st Keiran Qaium (NSWIS) 19&O 1st 200 fly
- 2nd Keelan Bridge 19&O 2nd 100 back
- 3rd Keiran Qaium (NSWIS) 19&O 100 fly
- 3rd Sarah Welfare 19&O 200 free
- 4thAndrew Hong 16yrs 200 back
- 5th Andrew Hong 16yrs 200 fly
- 5th Sarah Welfare 19&O 5th 400 free
- 6th Men’s 4×50 medley relay 16&O
- 6th Thomas Goddard 19&O 50 free
- 7th Rob Kanaley 14yrs 100 back
- 8th Cormac Guthrie 19&O 400 free
- 8th Andrew Hong 16yrs 100 fly
- 8th Men’s 4×50 Free relay 16&O
- 9th Thomas Goddard 19&O 100 free
- 9th Xiang Ma 19&O 200 free
- 10th Keelan Bridge 19&O 200 free
Swimmers also did a fantastic job at the UniSport Australia Div 1 Nationals on the Gold Coast, winning one gold, two silver and three bronze, with numerous 4th place finishes.
These results led to the men’s team finishing in 4th and the women in equal 5th in their respective point scores, culminating in an overall finish of 4th place.
Following the Div 1 Nationals competition, the University’s club team stayed up on the Gold Coast for a three day training camp, where they trained with TSS Aquatic and Southport Olympic, both of whom have coached Olympic medallists.
It was a great experience for the team and coaching staff, and great exposure for the program to see what it takes to make it to the top.
After the three day camp, five of our athletes have travelled up to Brisbane with Paul Bruce to train at the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) at Chandler Aquatic Centre for the week with Australian Coach Vince Raleigh.
It was phenomenal experience for them, swimming with the likes of Jack McLoughlin (Commonwealth Games Gold medallist and Pan-Pacific Championships medallist) and Zac Stubbly-Cook (Pan-Pacific Championships medallist), and should put them in good shape for the remainder of the summer season.
They will remain in Brisbane until Saturday, when they will travel down to Coolangatta to watch three of the program’s athletes compete in the Coolangatta Gold before flying home.
Also a special mention to a few of the swimmers representing us National and World Scale.
- Cormac Guthrie swam extremely well in the FINA 10KM Open Water Leg at St Lac Jean, Quebec, Canada. Unfortunately the swim didn’t go as planned, but he still did himself and his team extremely proud.
- Marina Carrier continues to do an amazing job on the Modern Pentathlon World Circuit, finishing the season with a 3rd in the Polish International and a world ranking of 39.
- Sarah Welfare and Daniel Perez will both be heading to the Australian SC national titles in Melbourne in late October. We wish them all the very best with their swims.
Follow the program at their new Instagram page HERE.
