THREE Inverell Swimming Club members, Hannah Wales, Sophie Mijik and Fergus Counsell, will be competing in the Country Short-course Championship to be held in Sydney on the weekend of July 2-3, and swimming club coach, Jack Butler, said all three are capable of establishing personal bests at the meet.
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The three have swum times at different carnivals that qualified them to compete at the championships, with Majik’s qualifying time coming as recently as last week in Armidale.
“I think we’ve prepared for it well,” Butler said.
“We’ve got a bit of an advantage. Training in a short-course pool this winter gets us prepared for it. If you’re training in a 50-metre pool you’re not doing as many tumble turns and in a short-course race, they’re one of the most important parts of it..
The championships will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center where the three will will swim against statewide qualifiers in various styles. From that standpoint the three Inverell swimmers could possibly be seen as outgunned by the sheer size of some of the metropolitan organisations, but Butler holds a different view.
“I’m not so much looking at it from a results standpoint, against other swimmers,” Butler said.
“I think the kids will do really well for themselves, with personal best times.
“And that’s what I’ve always told them to look forward to. No matter where they finish, first or last, if they’ve done a PB they should be happy with it because there is nothing more they could have done.
That’s the best they’ve ever swum, so they’ve worked hard and improved.”
Butler said winning was not everything at that level and it was better for a swimmer to keep on going and improving on their times.
A fundraiser for the swimming club to support their swimmers will be held at the Ross Hill Public School on Saturday July 2 in conjunction with the election.
