Australian Age Group Swimming Championships: Chalmers and Groenewald Add More Gold

BRISBANE, Australia, April 13. South Australian Kyle Chalmers and Melbourne based Nicholas Groenewald have stolen the show on the penultimate night of competition at the 2012 Australian Age Swimming Championships notching up a total of nine gold medals between them at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.

Originally from Port Lincoln but now based in Adelaide, 13-year-old Chalmers picked up his fourth Australian Age group record of the meet and fourth gold medal overall, winning the 12/13yrs boy's 50m freestyle.
Coached by Sean Curtis at the Norwood Swim Club, Chalmers took 0.35 of a second off the previous best over the distance set by Te Haumi Maxwell in 2008, to hit the wall in an even 24.00 seconds.

The win secured a clean sweep of the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle events in Brisbane this week, as well as the 100m fly title. Chalmers was too strong for fellow South Australian Luke Zille who won silver in 25.11 with Oliver Moody taking bronze in 25.61.

The girl's 50m free saw 13-year-old Queenslander Shayna Jack sprint to gold in an impressive time of 25.50, just 0.15 of a second outside the Australian record held by Commonwealth Games gold medallist Yolane Kukla. Jack was too quick for fellow Chandler swimmer Lucia Lassman (26.86), while Ella Bond from Marion won bronze in 26.92.

Not to be outdone on the medal count, Nunawading swimmer Nicholas Groenewald picked up his second Australian Age record of the meet winning the boy's 14yrs 100m backstroke by almost two seconds. Fresh from his record in the 200m IM on the opening night, Groenewald broke his own record of 57.99 by almost half a second, to hit the wall in 57.56. Tristan Ludlow from Kingscliff took silver in 59.68 while Lachlan Angel from Haileybury was third in an even minute.

The girl's 14yrs 100m backstroke saw Amy Forrester pick up the double winning gold in 1:03.31, with Surrey Park's Sian Whittaker (1:03.97) and Lucy McJannett from Bayside, NSW (1:04.18) rounding out the medal winners.

Groenewald was then back in the water an hour later for the boy's 14yrs 400m IM, winning his fifth gold medal of the meet. Having dominated the 200m IM on the opening night of competition and breaking an age group record held by Ian Thorpe, Groenewald hit the wall in 4:35.43 with Mitchell Davenport-Wright (4:38.56) second and Callum Sherington (4:40.41) taking bronze.

Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey (4:55.49) managed to upgrade to gold in the girl's 14yrs 400m IM after collecting the silver in 2011. Haughey turned it on for the finals, making her move in the breaststroke leg, leaving Alanna Bowles behind. As the first Australian to finish, Bowles will pick up her fourth gold medal of the meet with a time of 4:56.25. After posting the quickest time in the heats Karlene Pircher (4:58.08) will take home the silver ahead of bronze medallist Alexandra Good (5:01.27).

In other events …

Girl's 17/18yrs 200m Backstroke
Swimming in her home pool Mikkayla Sheridan took the 200m back title from last year's winner Jordan White in a time of 2:11.95. White picked up silver in 2:13.53 while St Peters Western Swimmer Madison Wilson won bronze in 2:16.70.

Boy's 17/18yrs 200m Backstroke
Olympic debutant Mitch Larkin showed his backstroke dominance to take gold in the boy's 17/18yrs 200m back. Pushed all the way by visiting Kiwi Corey Main, Larkin hit the wall in 1:59.90, with Main just 0.4 of a second behind in 2:00.30. The time was exactly two seconds slower than his own record, while Ryan Hore (2:03.86) and Eugene Tee (2:04.19) finished third and fourth respectively.

Boy's 17/18yrs 1500m Freestyle
Gold Coast based Matt Levings led from start to finish of the boy's 17/18yrs 1500m freestyle to win in a new personal best time of 15:21.14. The Denis Cotterell coached distance swimmer was too strong for open national champion Jarrod Poort (15:23.80) with Jack McGloughlin (15:53.52) picking up bronze.

Girl's 16yrs 200m IM
Victorian Haley Baker will be looking for her fourth gold medal of the meet tomorrow night having picked up a third tonight in the girl's 16yrs 200m IM. Already with the 400m IM and 100m back titles under her belt, Baker was too strong for Tianni Gilmour (2:17.11) with Leah Neale picking up bronze in 2:18.66.

Boy's 16yrs 200m IM
Visiting Kiwi Bradlee Ashby was more than two seconds ahead of the rest of the field to win the boy's 200m IM. Liam Cunneen from Atlantis (NSW) was the first Australian home in 2:08.05 with James McKechnie from Starplex (SA) taking silver in 2:08.14. Jake Baggaley won bronze in 2:08.16.

Girl's 17/18yrs 800m Freestyle
Laura Crockart from Ryde Carlile held on to win her first gold medal of the meet in the 800m free, having already picked up bronze in the 400m free. Having led by four body lengths through the middle of the race, Crockart was pushed all the way by Kareena Lee (8:41.19) to win in a time of 8:39.43. Queenslander Keryn McMaster took bronze in 8:54.81.

Girl's 12-13yrs 400m Freestyle
Delainee Melia powered through the last two laps of the girl's 12-13yrs 400m freestyle final, gaining more than a body length over Tamsin Cook (4:22.19) to take the title in 4:18.54. Melia, Cook and Chelsea Gubecka (4:24.14) took turns in the lead with Melia breaking away in the final 50m, leaving Cook with the silver and Gubecka with the bronze.

Boy's 12-13yrs 400m Freestyle
The battle for the title of the boy's 12-13yrs 400m freestyle ended in dramatic fashion with Braiden Oates touching the wall 0.01 ahead of USA swimmer Brandon Yong. Oates and Yong spent the majority of the race in a tug of war for the title with Oates winning it in the touch. Nudgee Brothers swimmer Jason Braedan was awarded the silver medal, five seconds behind the leaders in 4:19.74. Swimming from lane eight and picking up the bronze medal was Somerset's Toby Wilson (4:25.84).

Girl's 15yrs 200m Freestyle
Ami Matsuo has fought back in girl's 15yrs 200m freestyle final to defend her title in style. The sprinter went out hard and maintained her lead to the wall stopping the clock at 2:00.07, repeating her freestyle sweep of 2011, with a gold medal in each of the 50m, 100m and 200m events.
Kawana Waters swimmer Remy Fairweather collected her fourth medal of the meet when she came in second with a time of 2:01.08. Fastest qualifier from the heats Brittany McEvoy (2:02.34) came home fast to collect the bronze medal.

Boy's 15yrs 200m Freestyle
Victorian Mack Horton has taken his fourth Australian Age title with a massive win in the boy's 15yrs 200m freestyle final. Incredibly, Horton only missed medalling in one freestyle event out of five after being out-touched in the 50m final. While Horton cruised to victory, Michael Minchan tried to play catch up but had to settle for silver in 1:55.18. Hayden Hinds-Sydenham picked-up his third medal of the meet, touching in third in a time of 1:56.31.

Girl's 16yrs 100m Butterfly
Brianna Throssell out-raced her regular rivals Ellen O'Rourke and Christina Licciardi to take out her third Australian Age title. Throssell was the only swimmer under one minute with a time of 59.72; O'Rourke went close when she touched just behind in 1.00:84 while Licciardi posted a 1:01.58 for the bronze.

Boy's 16yrs 100m Butterfly
Nick Robertson got the better of fastest qualifier Regan Leong (55.10) to be crowned Australian Age champion in the boy's 16yrs 100m butterfly final. Robertson's time of 54.89 was too quick for Leong and bronze medallist Ben Schafer (55.27). Following this result Leong will add a further silver medal to his collection, taking his total medal tally from the meet to five.

Girl's 15yrs 200m Breaststroke
Victorian Jenna Strauch has snatched the breaststroke double with a win in the girl's 15yrs 200m breaststroke final. The medal dais bared a striking resemblance to the 100m final with Emma Handley taking silver in 2:36.26 and Maddison Dwyer taking the bronze in 2:37.16.

Boy's 15yrs 200m Breaststroke
Trinity Grammar swimmer James Traiforos blitzed the field of the boy's 15yrs 200m breaststroke to take the final in 2:23.89. Traiforos took nearly six seconds off his qualifying time to hit the wall ahead of Queenslander Rory Brown (2:27.11) and Woden swimmer Lachlan Colquhoun (2:28.91).

Girl's 12-13yrs 100m Breaststroke
The girl's 12-13yrs 100m breaststroke final was won from lane 9 with Abbey Harkin taking her third Australian Age title. The Novocastrian who won gold in the 200m breaststroke just scrapped in to the final but managed to post a significantly faster time of 1:13.38 to take gold. Mikayla Smith (1:13.91) and Georgia Wells (1:14.18) were oblivious to the outside attack, touching the wall in second and third place respectively.

Boy's 12-13yrs 100m Breaststroke
Queensland took a clean sweep of the medals in the boy's 12-13yrs 100m breaststroke final with East Brisbane's Zach Stubblety-Cook taking the top honours. Stubblety-Cook touched the wall ahead of Academy's Alan Gibson in 1:09.86 and Brisbane Grammar's Hunter Stubbs in 1:10.66.

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