Albany Swimming Club hosts more than 200 budding athletes from across WA for the Albany Short Course Carnival

Albany Swimming Club hosted more than 200 rising swimmers representing 32 clubs from across the State at the weekend for the Albany Short Course Carnival. Teams from Perth, the South West, the Wheatbelt region and Esperance all made the journey to Albany for the annual swim meet, with Scarborough Beach Swim Club being the greatest-represented travelling club with 32 athletes. The event also hosts the only 10x50m freestyle relay in the State, comprising five age groups spanning from eight-year-olds to open age, which had Scarborough narrowly clinching victory over Bunbury Swim Club and Albany. Bunbury’s Ingrid Blanford was exceptional across her eight events, winning five gold medals and two silver, while Fenix Swim Club’s Arabella Bowie won three golds and a bronze. Scarborough’s Jhett Scrivens took home a swag of medals from his nine individual events, including five gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes. Albany’s Luke Molenda broke the 10-year-old State record for 200m breaststroke and set a new record in the nine-year-old 100m freestyle and has been selected to represent the WA School Sport swim team at the interstate championships on the Gold Coast later this month. Molenda is currently ranked third in WA for the 50m breaststroke and first for the 100m breaststroke. Mt Barker Swim Club’s Dylan Zijlstra took home gold and a new open State record in the 200m breaststroke stopping the clock at 2min. 39.52sec. and claimed gold in 50m and 100m open breaststroke events. Fellow Barracuda Mia Hall set a new State record in the 12-year-old 50m freestyle division. ASC head coach Nola Osborne said the event was brilliantly contested by her athletes and achieved outstanding results. “It was fantastic to see the Albany Swim Club so proudly represented by 36 athletes who all performed strongly in their home pool over the weekend, swimming exceptionally well with several podium finishes, new State times secured and a bevvy of new personal best times,” she said. “This was the first official competition for many of our new members and they all showed a fierce determination to succeed in every event they swam.” The event was held at Albany Leisure and Aquatic Centre. ASC’s next major events are the senior and junior short course championships in August and September respectively.