THREE junior swimmers from Nyah Two Bays/Swan Hill Swimming Club have brought home medals from the 2024 Victorian Country All Junior Competition, all finishing in personal best times.
A group of ten swimmers travelled to Melbourne’s sports and aquatic centre last month, with all swimmers performing well against some of the best junior swimmers in the region.
The all country competition pits young swimming stars from Mildura to Gisborne against each other, in a variety of race lengths and stroke types.
Bohden Brown claimed a bronze medal in the 12-year-old boys 50m breaststroke with a time of 39.6 seconds, while James Xi won bronze in the 13-year-old boys butterfly in 32.78 seconds.
Amy Bail rounded out the trio of bronze medalists, her time of 47.07 seconds enough to claim third place in the 9-year-old girls 50m backstroke.
Club swimming coach Shirley Swan said she was “very proud of all our swimmers”.
“It’s marvellous to see these young people embrace swimming,” she said.
“They have to work very hard to get to this level, they do four training sessions a week in the pool.
“They can come early in the morning or in the afternoon after school, they are able to decide between the two options themselves.
“They can go out and play any other sport out there, but swimming is a sport that can hold you up for your whole life.
“It’s something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”
Swan said the club was happy to accept new members, and expressed the importance of having a strong swimming ability in the region.
“If children want to join up, they just have to come in and ask,” she said.
“They will have the chance to get involved in a few nights at first to see if they like it before they can join up and become a member.
“I think that there might not be enough work being put into teaching children to swim. Not just around here, but all around Australia. We just have to look at the drowning rate this year, it’s quite high.”
With a current age range of seven to 18 at the club, Swan said the club was looking to get more adults involved.
“We’ve just started a Masters group as well, which is open to anyone who would like to join,” Swan said.
“We’ve been getting quite a bit of interest in that at the moment.”
