Swimmers from the Stroud Seals Swimming Club have returned with a fist full of medals from the recent regional competition, along with a long list of achievements.
With a team of 10 swimmers, the Stroud Seals took on the North Coast Regional Swimming Championships held at Coffs Harbour on Saturday November 24 and Sunday November 25.
The swimmers enjoyed great weather and a really well organised carnival.
In particular a number of new swimmers competed for the first time and did really well.
The senior swimmers have achieved very good results with the club bringing home four gold medals, five silver and two bronze medals.
Raff Francisci won gold medals in the 50 metre fly, 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m fly.
Silver medals were won by Robert Stanley in 200m breaststroke, Grace Gray in the 200m breaststroke and 100m breaststroke, as well as Raff Francisci in the 200m freestyle and 200m fly.
Bronze medals were awarded to Grace Gray in 50 m breaststroke and Robert Stanley in the 100m breaststroke.
The club’s junior swimmers excelled in achieving numerous personal bests (PBs).
Congratulations to our newest competitors Jacob, Caleb and Claire Whitter who all acheived significant PBs.
Jacob took a whopping 4.67 seconds off his 50m freestyle time and Claire reduced her 50m freestyle time by 1.66 seconds and her 100m freestyle by 4.67 seconds.
Caleb Whitter made big reductions of 6.7 seconds and 3.01 seconds to his 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke times.
Not to be outdone, Angel Gray reduced her 50m freestyle time and 50m breaststroke time by 2.63 seconds and 0.29 seconds. Additionally, Angelica Francisci and Hosanna Gray swam 50m fly, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and achieved PBs in all these events.
Clarence Town swimmer, Jade Smith, as part of her ongoing improvements this season again achieved PBs in 50m fly, 50m freestsyle and 50m backstroke.
Jade, who trains with the Seals, but competes in swimming club at Clarence Town has improved her times significantly over the past six months. Jade swam PBs in her 50m fly (1.45 sec), 50m freestyle (1.23 sec) and 50m backstroke (0.38).
Her steady improvement reflects her dedicated training and increasing fitness and strength under Coach Michael Abel. Michael is working on increasing Jade's stroke rate and her cardiovascular fitness.
Senior swimmer Jeremy Edstein, who has been undergoing HSC exams and has been unable to train, attended and swam numerous long distance and short distance events and made his PBs.
Jeremy swam strongly and was pleased to make his target times.
Coach Michael Abel, who is training the squad to peak at Country Championships in February, was pleased the squad was on target.
