BATHURST swimmer Jodie Simson has once again proved her talent in the pool, this time impressing on a national level as she won two gold medals at the School Sport Australia Championships in Melbourne last week.

While that in itself was impressive, her luggage for the return trip included more than just a pair of gold medals.

Along with her wins in the 50 metre breaststroke and 4x50m medley relay events, the Kelso High student claimed silver in the 100 and 200m breaststroke competing in the under 17-19s age group.

It was the last school age national level competition for the swim ace and she certainly made the most of it by equalling her gold medal tally from the 2013 event.

Her individual gold medal in the 50m breaststroke – an effort that rated as her competition highlight – came on the back of a 33.55 seconds swim. Simson just got the better of NSW team-mate Meg Bailey, who touched home in 33.81. 

It was an improvement for Simson on her leading qualifying time of 33.71, one that still would have been good enough to take gold.

Simson’s other gold medal swim was just as thrilling a race, with her NSW A team playing catch up the entire distance of the medley relay as they tried to reel in fastest qualifiers Queensland.

A slow first leg put NSW on the back foot, but Simson’s breaststroke leg was the fastest in the field. It slightly reduced the gap to the leaders from 1.53 seconds to 1.27 seconds.

Quick butterfly and freestyle legs helped get NSW home in a time of one minute and 59.32 seconds, touching out Queensland on the wall by 0.23 of a second.

Simson was very pleased to make her final School Sport Australia Championships appearance a success.

“I knew it was going to be hard to do as well as I did last year, so my aim then was to try and do just as good so I’m really happy with it,” she said.

“Last year I got two gold, one silver and a bronze, but both those golds came in individual events and this time I got just the one [individual win]. 

“I felt nervous going there, but I feel like I did okay. I’m always really nervous before my races.”

Simson finished behind another NSW swimmer in Mckayla Everingham in both the 100 and 200m breaststroke finals.

The Kelso High star gave herself a lead of over a second at the 50m mark, but posted the fourth fastest second lap in the race to drop back into the silver medal position.

The story was the same in the 200m where Simson went out with her typical fast pace to lead, but was not able to open up enough of a buffer to hold on for the win. 

“The girl that won the 100 metres I’d won against at All Schools. It’s all about who’s just feeling the best on the day,” Simson said.

“I felt on top of my fitness. It’s really hard to train on short course then race on long course, so I think I did pretty good considering it’s winter.

“That’s the top of the school system for swimming and that’s all done now, so I’m kind of sad about that. I’ve got winter state age coming up in August and then state open in September, so I’ll be start my preparation for that now.”

The only event that Simson failed to medal in was the 4x50m freestyle relay, where she and her NSW B team finished in fourth.