As part of a new approach to open water swimming within the Performance Pathways Program, 8 Victorian athletes competed at the Queensland Open Water Championships at Lake Kawana on Saturday 20 October.
The aim of the tour was to give another opportunity for our swimmers to compete in an open water event and gain a national qualifying time. The top ranked athletes within our Open Water Squad were invited on the tour. They were selected based on their performances at the 2018 Australian Open Water Championships. The swimmers were guided by Head Coach Angus Barnes (Flyers) and Assistant Coach Mel Klamt (Nunawading).
The team travelled to Queensland on Friday 19 October to check out the course on the lake, as many of them had never competed at this event. They took part in a training session at the Kawana Waters Pool, where Olympian Open Water Swimmer, Chelsea Gubecka gave them tips for navigating her home course as well as some race tips which helped her make the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Conditions on the day were perfect and the swimmers delivered some great results.
Boys:
Robbe Diliseen (Melbourne Vicentre, coached by Kenrick Monk) – showed his class and experience to finish with a Bronze medal in the 10km and 7.5km events.
Lachlan Schwarz (Melbourne Vicentre, coached by Kenrick Monk) – showed great determination to finish the 10km race. His suit split in half at the 3km mark and with some quick initiative from the support staff, he was able to finish the race.
Luke Matthews (Bayside, coached by Tim Mulvihill) - swam 10km for the first time winning the Silver medal in his age group. He also won the Bronze in the 7.5km and 5km events in the 16-year-old age group.
Will Bowden (Flyers, coached by Angus Barnes) – swam 7.5km for the first time, narrowly missing out on the Bronze despite storming home in the final few kilometres.
Girls:
Georgia Watkins (Surrey Park, coached by Ian Pope) – won Bronze in the 10km and Silver in the 7.5km.
Rebecca Henderson (TigerSharks, coached by Craig Albery) – went neck and neck with Georgia for the majority of the race, winning Bronze in the 7.5km.
Lauren McCauley (Flyers, coached by Angus Barnes) – swam 7.5km for the first time, narrowly missing out on the Bronze despite her best efforts to chase down the three Queensland swimmers in front of her.
Katya Richardson (Melbourne Vicentre, coached by Kenrick Monk) – narrowly missed out on a PB in the 5km event but was able to swim a qualifying time for Nationals.
Well done to all our swimmers, we look forward to seeing them in action at the Victorian Open Water Championships on Sunday 16 December 2018.
