Jessica Li will represent Victoria in swimming at the School Sport Australia championships in Perth in September. 30404 Picture: Meagan RogersBy Marc McGowan
NARRE Warren swimmer Jessica Li is off to Perth in September after booking a spot in the Victorian team for the School Sport Australia championships.
The Grade 6 Mary MacKillop Primary School student finished second in the 50m backstroke at the Victorian Primary School Sports Association Swimming Championships at MSAC on 27 April.
Li, 11, also came seventh in the 50m butterfly.
The Kings Swimming Club member won the 50m backstroke at the event in 2008 and returned from last year’s national schools competition in Canberra with a bronze medal in the 4 x 50m medley relay.
Li joins 49 others in the state squad that will compete from 12 to 18 September.
The top two placed athletes in the breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke disciplines and fastest three freestyle competitors in each age group qualified.
“I was quite happy with myself when I won the bronze last year and hopefully I can medal again,” she said.
Li is earning a strong reputation in the pool after also snaring gold and bronze medals in the 50m backstroke and freestyle respectively at the Metro All-Junior Finals last month.
She trains four times a week at her Narre Warren South-based swimming club and enjoys making new friends through the sport.
Her proud father, Filipe, is taking none of the credit for his daughter’s success.
“I have nothing to do with it at all. We just came here to help her learn how to swim and she progressed from that,” he said.
“The main thing we want is for her to be active and healthy.”
Li may not be the only sporting success in her family for long, with her younger sister, Sophie, 9, about to start swimming as well.
