On Sunday, August 4, four members of the Yass Swimming Club took part in the ACT Short Course Championships which were held at the AIS.
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Tahlia Wullaert, Lara McLelland, Lucy McLelland, and Liana Deery all represented Yass in Canberra, and club secretary Donna Wullaert said that the swimmers' efforts were "really good".
"Obviously not having a pool in Yass in the winter they've done really well, considering they can only make it to Canberra a couple of times a week to train," she said.
Tahlia was the first off the blocks, and she swam in the 50m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, and the 50m freestyle.
Her results were middling in all but the freestyle race, which saw her beat her old personal best by 1.23 seconds.
Lara was next in the water, and though she performed extremely well in her four races to record four sizeable personal bests, the largest of which was 3.96 seconds in the 100m backstroke, and she earned a bronze medal for her efforts.
Lucy went third of the four swimmers and competed in the 50m freestyle event, and she managed another personal best for the Yass club, which was her fastest by 0.78 seconds.
Liana was the last to compete, and also took part in the 50m freestyle competition. After an extremely long weekend in which she also competed in a gymnastics competition, the youngster managed a 1.44 second personal best in the water.
Though the results were middling for the club, it was an extremely high level of competition for the young swimmers, and Wullaert said that the experience would prove to be crucial.
"I don't think the girls had ever swum in the ACT championships before, it was just a good experience," she said.
"It was the first time they'd ever qualified to swim.
"[It was] really important, the race practice and preparation is important so when they do come up at carnivals they're more used to that standard."
One of the most impressive aspects of the meet for the club was the mindset of the young women competing.
Far from being anxious about performing at such a high level, the swimmers were eager to get in the water and test themselves.
"I don't think they were nervous," Wullaert said.
"They were pretty excited to compete and obviously Lara walking away with a medal was an unexpected bonus. I think they had fun and were lucky that they were all in the same age group."
The club will next look toward hosting its first swimming carnival in roughly ten years on November 24. Swimmers must be registered with the club to compete.