Gold, gold, gold for Jake

By Gavin Staindl
WHILE most swimmers were focused on the Commonwealth Games swimming trials last weekend, nine-year-old Jake Duggan was making a name for himself at the Victorian Metro All Junior Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
Duggan took out gold medals in the 50-metre freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as well as rewriting record books.
Over the two-day event, Jake broke the state record for the 50m freestyle on the first day only to break it again in the final in a time of 34.94 – nearly half a second clear of the previous best set three years ago.
In the breaststroke he swam a time of 42.03, only .02 seconds off the state record that has stood since 1978.
“It was a fantastic effort to win all four (races),” said TigerSharks coach James Fox.
Also registering good results for the TigerSharks was 11-year-old Matt Shaw who won a silver and a bronze in the backstroke and freestyle respectively and nine-year-old Tahlia Banh who came third in the butterfly.
But as Fox makes it quite clear, it is the individual performances rather than the medals that the club celebrates.
“It is all about personal bests,” he said. “Robert Mansfield had a stand-out swim. I told him he recorded a great entry time to qualify but (in the finals) he blasted his entry time out of the water,” Fox said.
Mark Ayre-Beasley, 13, had some unwelcomed practice the night before his backstroke final when his hotel flooded, yet the boy who Fox admitted would struggle to make medals ignored the sleepless night and swam second.
Also to impress the coach was Jake Templar, who finished second in the freestyle, but it was his dedication to improving that stood out to Fox.
“He did the exact thing we wanted him to do. He trained his little heart out and each time (he swims) his swims are getting faster.
“He is always asking where he can improve and get faster. It is the spitting image of what we want from our swimmers at our club,” Fox said.
According to Fox, 80 per cent of the TigerSharks swimmers who participated over the 16 races swam personal bests.
“All the swimmers swam extremely well … it is a testament to their training,” he said.