Swimming Gunnedah had a cracking start to the long course season as the club made a huge splash at the Orana Aquatic carnival in Dubbo last weekend.
The squad of 14 showed off the depth of talent in the club with a massive 56 personal best (PB) times, three carnival records and two club records.
The team came away with 27 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze medals as well as NSW Country qualifying times.
New head coach Colin Marley led the squad that showed sportsmanship, hard work, dedication and team spirit.
Three Orana carnival records fell, including one to Tahnee Steele in the 14yrs 50m freestyle with a time of 30.91 seconds.
National medallist Banjo Fitzgerald toppled a carnival record in the 10yrs boys 50m butterfly after clocking 35.01 seconds, while junior Samuel Wark snatched the record for the 6yrs boys 25m butterfly.
Samuel’s brilliant swim broke a 34-year-old Gunnedah club record. His time of 28.68, with a 30-second PB, broke Leo Mahoney’s record from 1990 (30.45).
Cameron Sills added his name to the Gunnedah club record books after smashing the 10yrs boys 200m butterfly record by 10 seconds.
Cameron clocked a time of 3:27.81 and claimed gold in the event, while beating the former record time of 3:37.85 which was set in 2022.
After some time out of the pool, senior swimmer Baxter Knapman (14) set PBs in 50m freestyle and butterfly. He picked up two gold medals, five silvers and a bronze.
Cameron came away with five gold and four silvers as he battled it out with Banjo who snatched three gold, a bronze and a silver after also having some time away from the pool.
Tahnee secured two gold, two silver, two bronze and six PBs including a 12.21 second improvement in the 200m backstroke.
In the junior ranks, there were some impressive results with Samuel Wark (6), Jessica Dallesandro (6) and Jimmy Fitzgerald (8) winning a clean sweep of four gold across all of their 50m races.
They all clocked PBs ranging from 11 to 30 seconds.
Darci (9) and Macey Dallesandro (11) each posted five PBs and won three bronze medals between them.
Pippa Wark (9) showed huge improvement across seven races, collecting a gold and four silver medals while Marsel Tikhonskiy snatched a bronze in 100m backstroke.
Sophie Rindfleish (14) took home a gold and a silver medal, while Jake Hausfeld (12) and Aiden Sills (8) showed great improvement with a total of seven best times.
Gunnedah’s coach was impressed with his new squad, saying the huge number of PBs reflected the hard work the children put in with a heavy focus on training techniques.
“The kids all did really well and were maintaining their swim times over the length of events. They were focused and concentrated,” Colin said.
“It’s a good start to the season with the aim now having more kids qualify for Country Regionals, NSW Country and NSW State Age.”
Swimming Gunnedah fielded a strong contingent at the Orana Aquatic carnival in Dubbo. Pictured left, Colin Marley, Tahnee Steele, Jimmy Fitzgerald, Aiden Sills, Samuel Wark, Darci Dalessandro, Cameron Sills, Jake Hausfeld, front, Pippa Wark, Marsel Tikhonskiy, Jessica Dalessandro, Macey Dalessandro and Banjo Fitzgerald.
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