Vic Open SC Champs wrap up

After a month of exciting competition, our short course season came to an end on the weekend with the Victorian Open Short Course Championships. 582 swimmers took to the pool at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) including, Olympians, Paralympians, State Team members and emerging stars.

Nunawading’s Jessica Hansen continued her fine form from the recent Pan Pacific Championships. She had strong swims in the 100m Breaststroke (1:06.02) and 200m Breaststroke (2:24.62), taking home Gold in both events.

Everything Jack Gerrard touched turned to Gold. In the Men’s Freestyle events he was unstoppable, taking out the 50m, 100m and 200m trifecta. He also won Gold in the Men’s 100m IM, an outstanding performance from the Melbourne Vicentre swimmer.

The Men’s 100m Breaststroke Final was a heart stopper with the top three swimmers all swimming 1.00. It was Vicentre’s Daniel Cave who narrowly nudged out the competition to claim Gold with his time of 1:00.06, finishing ahead of Firbank’s Samuel Williamson (1:00.12) and MLC Aquatic’s David Schlicht (1:00.38).

MLC Aquatic’s Ryland Brian showed us how it’s done in the Men’s IM events. The 18-year-old won Gold in the 200m IM (2:01.66) and 400m IM where he finished 8 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, hitting the wall at 4:20.46.

There was some strong swimming from our multi class athletes including Paralympian, Emily Beecroft (Traralgon). Emily won Gold in the 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle and Bronze in the 100m Backstroke.   She finished under multi class world record time in the 50m Butterfly with her time of 30.97. 

Fellow Paralympian, Matthew Haanappel (Camberwell Grammar Aquatic) was another top performer, taking home an impressive haul of 2 Gold, 2 Silver and a Bronze medal. There were 3 applications for Australian Multi Class Records to be ratified and 17 new Victorian Multi Class Records created.   

We also saw some special moments on the dais with 26 lucky junior swimmers given the opportunity to get up close and personal with their idols. They were invited to present medals while taking in all the action from prime position on pool deck. An unforgettable experience for the young swimmers!

Nunawading was again the club to beat, taking out the Winter Short Course Trophy for the highest aggregate points across both Victorian Short Course Championships. Nunawading also set 4 new relay records and broke the record in the Open Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay with their star-studded team of Sophie Caldwell, Jessica Hansen, Kayla Costa and Julia Hawkins stopping the clock at 4:03.50.

Well done to all our swimmers, coaches and clubs on their performances at the Championships. For full results click here.

We now look forward to our long course season which kicks off with the Victorian Qualifying and Long Distance Meet on 17-18 November 2018.