Casey TigerShark Josh Beaver won the 200m backstroke at last week’s Australian Age Championships in Sydney. 29766 Picture: Meagan RogersBy Marc McGowan
TOORADIN swimmer Josh Beaver admits he doesn’t have much of a social life, but, as of Saturday night, he can call himself a national champion.
The Casey TigerSharks star entered last week’s Australian Age Championships ranked top-10 nationally in the 16-year-old age group in the 100m and 200m backstroke.
But Beaver made a mockery of those rankings in claiming gold in the 200m and finishing fifth over the two-lap event.
He swam 2:06.48 in the 200m backstroke heats to qualify fastest for the final before lowering his personal-best time further with a stunning 2:05.70 swim.
Beaver’s previous fastest time over the distance was 2:10.42.
“I’m pretty stoked. I went in with a ranking of seventh Australian and the time that was first was a bit far out of reach – I thought – but I’d done all the training,” he said.
“I’d been doing equal PBs in training, so I knew that I’d get a bit quicker but I didn’t think I’d go 2:05 quick though.”
TigerSharks head coach Ben Hiddlestone tipped Beaver as the club’s dark horse, but was still pleasantly surprised at the teenager’s performance.
“He had done a lot of training and we hadn’t really tested him over 200m after all that hard training he’d done and the preparation and the taper,” Hiddlestone said.
“We train very hard so that halfway through the season you’re not swimming that well, but there’s a really big payout at the end of the season if you stay healthy and taper properly. Josh has shown that.
“He had a really bad second turn at the 100m mark. He turned first, but came up about fourth under water and I thought ‘Here we go’.
“But he managed to fight his way back and smoke home to win it by 0.1.”
The Year 10 Haileybury College student first competed at Australian Age Championships level in 2006 and finished second-last in his only event after being racked with nerves.
He missed out in 2007 due to a right shoulder injury that kept him out of the water for eight months, but returned to make his first national final last year in Queensland.
That experience steeled Beaver for an even better display last week and also helped him deal with a short technical delay before the 200m final.
“Last year I made the final and came from being ranked 19th, so I had finals’ experience and knew what it was like,” he said.
“They were fixing one of the touch pads (this year) and I was standing up swinging my arms and everyone had sat down and I was just looking down my lane and two minutes later I looked at the kids next to me and thought ‘Yeah, I’ll go sit down as well’.
“It does sink in a bit and you have to work your way around it and stay relaxed.”
Beaver spent up to eight sessions a week in the pool this season – almost double what he did the year before – and also dealt with a heavier homework load.
But he believes the sacrifices will be well worth it if he can achieve his life-long goal of representing his country.
“Everyone’s dream when you start swimming is to make an Australian team at an Olympics,” Beaver said.
“(Olympic medallist) Andrew Lauterstein inspires me. He was a quiet kid and then came from nowhere almost and made the Australian team.”
