October gives our distance swimmers a chance to compete in the Brisbane and Queensland Open Water Championships. This year we had a small team of 9 swimmers compete in the Brisbane Championships where Ben Garozzo won the 1.25km 13 years boys, Ashleigh Eskdale was 2nd in 1.25km and backed up with 3rd in 2.5km 12 years girls, Kristen Wallace was 2nd in 5km 18 years girls. All our other swimmers finished in the top ten of their events which was a great result.
This was the second event in the Brisbane premiership and after a disappointing 8th in the first event we finished first overall in the open water event and climbed up to 3rd on the table. We had 5 swimmers go on to compete in the State Championships where Ben Garozzo finished 2nd and Kai Watson 3rd in the 5km 13 years boys. From these championship meets we had six swimmers qualify to compete at the National Championships being held in Adelaide next year.
This season the Brisbane Relay Championships were held in November. We assembled 52 of our swimmers aged from 9 years old to 18 years old into 36 teams to compete in freestyle and medley relays. It was a great experience for our younger swimmers who have never competed at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre and also a great team building event as swimming can tend to be a very individual sport. We were able to finish 4th overall which now has us 2nd overall with the final three events being held in the new year.
This year we were able organise a Bayside Challenge Meet between four local clubs. This was held at the end of November and saw the Ormiston Swim Academy, Sheldon Swim Academy and the Wellington Allstars come and challenge the mighty Redlands Swim Club. Redlands ran out overall winners with the Allstars taking home the percentage points trophy. It was a great day and lots of fun for the swimmers and spectators.
During all this the swimmers are aiming to qualify for the State Championships which are held over the week 10-16 December. At the time of writing there is great anticipation around the club with the hard work by the coaches and swimmers having paid off so far as we have 26 swimmers qualified to compete in 135 events, which is our largest team in five years.
The championships start on the Saturday with club relays where we have entered our best team in each age group to compete. Following the club relays are the regional relays where we have had seven swimmers chosen to compete for the Brisbane team.
I trust everyone had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying the holidays and we will be back in the pool in the new year with the sprint season the first challenge for our swimmers.
Andrew Speedie
President
redlandsswimpresident@gmail.com