Saturday 5 March and Sunday 6 March saw 7 Sydney University Swimmers competing for the first time at the SNSW National Qualifying Meet. The swimmers were competing against themselves, aiming for personal bests that would bring them below the National Age qualifying times. Huon Fairbairn was after a qualifying time for the 13 years 200m butterfly. He needed to knock over 3 seconds off his PB of 2:34.04 to qualify. Lining up at his first attempt in the morning, he worked hard and knocked a second off his PB. He lined up again in the afternoon and succeeded in a spectacular fashion achieving a PB of 2:30.17, inside the 2:31.00 qualifying time. Great job Huon! Sarah Hilt, one of the newest members of the club, attempted her first official qualifying times for backstroke. Having recently been taught backstroke by new coach Vanessa Smith, she swam her first backstroke race at our last club night. Unfortunately, with no referee, she could not use the times. However, at the National Qualifying meet she managed to secure a National MC qualifying time of 1:09.10 for the 50m backstroke. Well done Sarah! Angelique Barrett had two attempts at getting a qualifying time for 100m butterfly and the 50m free. On both occasions she went under her previous PB for the 100m butterfly, but narrowly missed out by 2 tenths of a second on getting the needed time. With a new PB of 1:09.50, Angelique needs 1:09.30 to join the others in Adelaide. On the Sunday, Angelique was back to try for a 50m freestyle qualifying time. On both occasions she beat her previous mark and went under the elusive 30 seconds. She needs to take off .65 of a second to get there. She has one more chance at our next club night. Good luck Angelique. Cecilia Mafi, Dot or Dorothy to everyone, burned up the pool in the 50m freestyle on both days, trying to make the 29.00 required. On both occasions she managed to break the 30 second mark with two new PBs, and narrowly missed out with a final PB of 29.24 seconds – only .24 seconds to go. Dot has one more chance out our club night on 19 March. We’ll be cheering for you! Tom Stirk, pushed and pulled hard for a 100m breastroke time. On his first attempt, he matched his existing PB of 1:16.95. On his second attempt, he bettered his PB and achieved a 1:16.08. He needs a 1:15.20, which he shall be aiming for at our next club night. We have our fingers crossed for you! Inez Osland must be exhausted after her efforts in the 50m freestyle and the 100m freestyle. She made 4 attempts to try and make the 28.50 second qualifying time, but was just outside her previous PB of 29.50 seconds. With the 50m freestyle, you only have to take one breath too many or miss that extra metre in the streamline to miss out. Come on Inez. We will be supporting you at Club night. Finally, Paige Burland, who already has a National Age qualifying time, participated in the 50m freestyle, the 100m backstroke and the 200m backstroke. With a new PB of 29.45 in the 50 m freestyle, she also needs to drop less than ½ a second to qualify. Her two swims in the 100m backstroke saw her beating the National Age qualifying time of 1:11.50 both times with a 1:11.10 and 1:09.16. While she has already qualified for this event, it was good to see her consistently beating the qualifying time. Paige backed it up in the 200m backstroke where for the first time in competition she went below 2:30.00 with a 2.29.91, well inside the qualifying time of 2.33.00. That’s two events that she’ll be competing it at the National Age in Adelaide. Congratulations Paige! A special thanks to their coach Vanessa Smith for supporting the swimmers over the weekend and preparing them so well for the sessions. She provided them with valuable feedback on their swims, which will be put to good use at our next club night. Thank you also to their parents and supporters who travelled out to SOPAC to cheer them on. STOP PRESS: Tom, Angel, Inez and Dot all qualified at the next swim club night. |
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National Qualifying Meet Showdown!posted 7 Apr 2011 03:15 by SydUni Swimming |