Thompson sets new personal bests at Combined High Schools titles

Gunnedah High School swimmer Alex Thompson eclipsed several personal best times at the recent NSW Combined High Schools swimming championships in Sydney.

The 15-year-old returned some outstanding results in four events, after qualifying at regionals in Armidale where the top three swimmers made it through to state.

Racing the best in NSW at Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush, Alex touched the wall with three personal best times, including the boys 15-16 years 400m freestyle where he shaved almost five seconds off the mark with a time of 4:56.17 to finish 16th in the state.

He backed up the race with a strong performance in the 16 years 200m freestyle to finish in 2:18.57 and take another 5.38 seconds off his best time to claim 20th place in NSW.

It was stiff competition in the hotly contested 50m freestyle, where Alex stormed up the pool to touch the wall at 27.69 seconds – clipping 0.44 seconds from his best time.

He also finished in the top 20 in the boys open 800m freestyle.

Just days later, Alex was back in the pool to compete at the Forster swimming carnival where he returned home with a swag of medals.

He won silver in the 200m freestyle and claimed bronze in the 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and the 100m freestyle where he edged closer to the one-minute mark to stop the clock at 1:02.63 and shave 0.67 off his best time.