The Australian Age Championships kicked off on the Gold Coast yesterday with Carlile Swim Team being represented in 22 races. It was a big first day for the team, and a very successful one at that! Across the day there were 11 pb's from the heats, and 7 swimmers progressed through to the night time finals.

Night one finalists included Jess Perrson, Kaitlin Barry, Emma Ng, Lexie Cook, Maya Ostapanko and Isobel Mulcahy. Olivia Wunsch also had the opportunity to race for NSW in the state relay.

Swim of the Day...

Swim of the day goes to Isobel Mulcahy in the girls 14 years 800m Freestyle. Issy secured a silver medal with a 5 second pb! It was a great battle for 16 laps with 3 girls finishing within 1.08 seconds. Her time was 9.04.11. Well done Issy!

National Final Debuts...

In our first final for the night, Kaitlin Barry won a bronze medal in the girls 13 years 200m backstroke. With this being her first National final it was a great result to come away with her first National medal. Earlier in the day Kaitlin had raced the girls 13 years 800m freestyle finishing 4th in a new pb time of 9.26.91. Great start to the meet Kaitlin!

Jess Persson also stepped up to make her first National final, securing 4th position behind Kaitlyn in the girls 13 years 200m backstroke. It was great to see Jess go into the final ranked 9th and finishing the final in 4th. After dropping 1.04 seconds off her pb this morning, she then took another 1 second off her time at night. Great job Jess!

In the girls 13 years 100m butterfly, Emma Ng qualified for her first National age B final. Emma dropped 2.38 seconds off her pb for a heat time of 1.07.40, and then came back at night to swim a time of 1.07.29. Emma finished 13th overall!

Best Time in the Breaststroke...

In the girls 14 years 100m breaststroke Carlile had two swimmers progress to the B final. Maya Ostapanko and Lexie Cook both came back and swam faster times at night than their heat swims. Lexie made two big drops off her pb to finish 15th overall in a time of 1.15.43 and Maya finished 18th in a time of 1.15.97. Well done girls!

Day 1 Roundup...

A special mention goes to Luke Jamieson and Maisie Langley for their efforts on day 1. Luke swam the boys 15 years 1500m heat, dropping a massive 27.46 seconds off his pb. Luke took it out strong and led his heat from start to finish. Luke's time of 16.49.40 secured him 5th overall. A great result for his first age Nationals.

Maisie raced the girls 13 years 100m butterfly in a PB time of 1.08.96. This was a 2.02 second pb. What was great from Maisie was she then backed up to race a swim off in the same event with no swim down, and again swam under her original PB again. Whilst this added an extra element to Maisie's first day, she managed herself very well through it all, and then got up and raced the 800 freestyle not much later in the day.

To finish the night of racing, Olivia Wunsch anchored the girls 13-17 years state relay for NSW to secure a gold medal with the team. The team of girls all swam very well. Olivia's anchor time was 24.27. Good job Liv!

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