Young swimmers make a splash in Mt Barker for Great Southern Regional Championships

More than 80 young swimmers made a splash in Mt Barker on Saturday for the Great Southern Regional Championships. Swim clubs from Albany, Mt Barker, Corrigin, York and Narrogin all participated in the carnival that draws the best young swimmers from across the Great Southern region to compete. Albany Swim Club was represented by 26 athletes and clinched the championship club award after securing an impressive 103 medals including 35 gold across just 96 events. Mt Barker Swim Club finished second with 60 medals with 24 gold while York Swim Club rounded out the top three with 14 gold medals. Mt Barker Swim Club coach Jeff Osborne said the event was contested superbly by the young athletes who braved the hot conditions. “It was very hot on Saturday and extremely trying conditions for the athletes,” he said. “Despite the hot weather they competed very well and it was a really good event for everyone.” York Swim Club added the handicap shield to their third-place overall while Narrogin finished fourth with four gold medals and Corrigin was last with two. Narrogin Amateur Swimming Club coach Tanya Hart was proud of the swimmers’ efforts. “We had 10 swimmers attend the meet and three of those were first-time competitors which was really exciting,” Hart said. “This was one of our target meets and to get 10 kids was really good because there was Country Week basketball and the Festival of Hockey over the weekend too. “The most exciting part for us coaches was seeing the kids give their best. “All of the kids got personal bests, some of them took around 12 second seconds off their time which was really impressive.” Albany Swim Club coach Nola Osborne said the event served as the perfect preparation event for the upcoming country pennants in Kalgoorlie. “This was another big target meet for Albany Swim Club following on from our successes at the country championships in Perth in January,” she said. “There was so much to be proud of from this group, they are a very dedicated and determined bunch of athletes but the hard work continues until we head to Kalgoorlie in March for country pennants.”