BATHURST City Amateur Swim Club will take 11 juniors to the weekend’s NSW Country Short Course Championships at Homebush.
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The swimmers, aged between 10 to 15, will be hunting for gold over two days of action and are out to put the Bathurst club on the map.
Club co-coach Josh Stapley said the team is a mix of first-timers and experienced campaigners.
“11 is a great number for us to have coming through,” he said.
“Ben Roffe will have a good crack at all of his events. The younger swimmers like Toby Partridge and Patrick O’Hara have been swimming very well.
“Emily Press is one swimmer I’ve had for a couple of years and she’s managed to make the jump up to qualify.”
Emilee Curran and Jasmine Gold are the other swimmers who will be taking the step up to the Country Short Course Championships for the first time.
After the long course season ended, Bathurst swimmers got busy searching for qualifying times to earn their place at the short course championships.
Some had to wait as late as the recent Mountains & Plains Championships in Orange, just under a fortnight ago, to find the times they were looking for.
“It’s been hard work for all of them to work towards getting those country times. It’s especially good for those guys who missed out on long course times earlier in the year,” Stapley said.
“They guys that have been working towards this have done really well. They’ve been trying to recover from the Orange meet. We’ll probably taper down the training over the next couple of days and give them a few easier sessions before this event.”
Bathurst will be led through the likes of Kirrily Edwards and Collette Lyons.
Edwards will be hoping to break the 28-second mark for the 50 metres freestyle and has the 100m and 200m to contest. Edwards also has the 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly to take on.
Lyons has the busiest schedule of any Bathurst swimmer with eight events. She is also the only swimmer of the group to qualify for a medley (200m IM).
The 11-year-old will go to Homebush looking to better the three gold medals she collected at last year’s championships.
O’Hara is the only other swimmer from the Bathurst club to successfully qualify for races in all four strokes.
Kate Edwards, Lauren Lyons and Molly McCrossin round out the Bathurst squad.
Lyons and Edwards also have plenty on their plates with four races to prepare for.
Bathurst swimmers will take part in 37 events over the two days of action.