South Esk Swimming Club won the always competitive battle against Launceston Aquatic Club in its rival’s home pool but it was a Burnie 16-year-old that all but carried his club on Sunday.
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In the battle for gold supremacy, South Esk captured 37 to Launceston’s 29 during Swimming Tasmania’s northern regional winter championships at the Launceston Aquatic Centre.
South Esk also won 95 medals, some 46 ahead of its nearest of the six clubs competing at the titles.
Cradle Coast Aquatic Club collected 11 gold, as Riverside claimed seven from its 42-medal tally.
“The thing that stood out for me was that there was some really good racing today, like good competition and some good events,” Jayne Shepherd, Swimming Tasmania’s northern regional assistant chief referee, said.
“There were some really close finishes, which was really exciting and it got the crowd into it.
“It was probably one of the better regional championships that I’ve been where there was some really good, close racing.”
Burnie Amateur Swimming Club collected just seven of the 94 gold on offer.
But six of the North-West club’s wins came off the back of rising Tasmanian swimmer Patrick Roberts.
“Patrick is just swimming really well at the moment,” Shepherd said.
“When I was going through the results, I didn’t realise he won pretty much won all over his events.”
Launceston’s Aquatic’s Chelsea Savage also matched Roberts’ six gold medals.
The 13-year-old took out indidual wins in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 200m butterlfy and 200m backstroke events.
The northern regionals is a part of the build-up to the state championships.
“There were some close swims that went close, but we didn’t have any records broken,” Shepherd added. “But that’s not unusual; it’s not common to set new records.”
It was probably one of the better regional championships that I’ve been where there was some really good, close racing
- Swimming Tasmania’s northern regional assistant chief referee, Jayne Shepherd