We are back!

19 January 2021
2021 Vic Sprint Champs
Written by: Swimming Victoria

After a 10-month hiatus, Swimming Victoria Championships are back at MSAC!

Over the weekend, 1312 athletes from 88 clubs returned to MSAC for the 2021 Victorian Sprint Championships. This meet, the first of the 2021 season, also introduced self-marshaling to the competitors, adding an extra layer of responsibility for athletes.

The Championships were split into three sessions by age bands, raced as timed finals, with heats conducted fastest to slowest. As this was the first major competition with the new process of self-marshalling, we wanted to give swimmers every opportunity to swim their event should they miss their heat.

Generally, the slowest heat has spare lanes so by running fastest to slowest, if anyone missed their heat, the technical officials would be able to slot them into another heat with a spare lane. With over 1300 entries, there were only a handful of swimmers who missed their heat and our TO’s were able to put them into another heat so they could still swim their race.

The lengthy time out of the water had minimal impact on the swimmer’s times. Overall, there was a 49% time improvement rate on the swimmers’ seed time, narrowly missing out on matching last year’s 51% improvement rate. The young guns in the 11 & 12 year-old age group lead the way in session 1, achieving a remarkable 59% improvement rate on their entry time.

There were several standout individual performances across the weekend, including:

Male:

11-year-old Austin Chien from Camberwell Aquatic won 2 Gold and 1 Silver.

12-year-old Qiansheng Huang from Surrey Park won Gold in the Freestyle and Butterfly.

14-year-old boys, Luca Gueue from Ballarat Gold and Hunter Boswell from Bendigo East both won 3 medals, with Ashley Nicholes from Traralgon claiming 2.

15-year-old Duc-Huy Du from North-West Aquatic was the standout, winning a medal of each colour.

16-year-old Stone Ma from North West Aquatic claimed a hattrick of Gold medals.

18-year-old Noah Millard from MLC won 2 Gold medals, while Johann Stickland from Western Melbourne Propulsion claimed 3 medals.

In the 19 & over events, 33-year-old Olympian Andrew Lauterstein showed up his younger competitors, winning the Freestyle and Butterfly events in blistering times.

Female:

12-year-olds Lily Koch from Nunawading and Sophie Jacka split the Gold medals in the age group.

13-year-old Matilda Byrne from Geelong claimed 3 of the 4 Gold medals available.

14-year-old Allannah Torrence from MLC was dominant, winning 3 Gold medals and claiming another Silver.

15-year-olds Charlie Millard from MLC and Sienna Shepherd from Firbank won 3 medals each.

17-year-old Layla Day from Bendigo East won 2 Gold and a Silver medal.

In the 19 & over events, Isabella Symons from MLC won 2 Gold medals, while Mackensey House from Albury claimed three medals.

Each session concluded with a Mixed 4x50m Freestyle Relay, with Nunawading and Geelong claiming Gold in the first two sessions. The third relay was dominated by Firbank Aquastars, with their A & B team claiming the 1 -2 finish.

The overall club standing:

  1. Nunawading
  2. Firbank Aquastars
  3. MLC Aquatic
  4. Surrey Park
  5. Geelong Swimming Club
  6. Western Melbourne Propulsion
  7. Ballarat Gold 
  8. Melbourne Vicentre
  9. Traralgon Swimming Club
  10. Northcote

Congratulations to all athletes, coaches and technical officials on a successful first competition back. Swimming Victoria would like to thank all spectators and parents for their patience and understanding with the ticketing and registration process. We would also like to thank MSAC for their ongoing support to deliver Swimming Victoria competitions.

We now look forward to the 2021 Victorian Country LC Championships in Warragul this weekend! For competition information click here.

Was this page helpful?yesno

Thanks for your feedback.

Go back to top