Bathurst talent Sienna Whalan picks up new PBs in breaststroke events at Australian Age Swimming Championships

Whalan swam the 100 metre breaststroke on April 10, finishing 12^th after heading into the event with a seed of 27^th, while she came 27^th in the 200 metre breaststroke on April 12, heading into the event with the 50^th seed.

Bathurst Swim Club coach Josh Stapley said the 14-year-old swam fantastically.

"She was very impressive, as it was her first ever national championships," Stapley said.

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"It was always going to be a whole new experience, not only dealing with interstate travel but staying out of home, as she was up there for a good week before her races. We had to deal with training in different locations as well.

"It's the first time she's experienced a full event like this. It was also a new competition pool and a whole new level of competition, with the best athletes in Australia coming together for this event.

"To her credit, she handled the pressure really well."

Stapley explained that Whalan did a half a second PB in the 100 metre breaststroke to finish 12^th, finishing 0.06 of a second of making the final.

"It was exceptional result but to get that close to finals, she was quite disappointed when getting out of the pool," he said.

"She refocused really well for the 200 metre on the Monday to come away with another great result.

"The 200 metre breaststroke has typically been her weaker event and it's been almost four months since she PB in that event, but she pulled about a two second PB.

"She came back from fourth to second in her heat to finish 27^th overall, almost halving her seeding of 50^th."

Stapley said Whalan has enjoyed a rapid rate of impressive in recent months and expects it to only get better for her.

"She's definitely got the capacity to compete at that national open stage and certainly one of our targets for next year is to get one of those starts in the 50 metre breaststroke at an open level," he said.

"I'm stoked with her and I think she can go pretty far with it, now that she's got that experience under her belt. Next season is only going to be better."

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