Backstroker Brad York is the only Casey TigerShark competing at this week’s Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney. 20944 Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Marc McGowan
CASEY TigerSharks star Brad York became the first swimmer at the club to reach an open semi-final at the Australian Swimming Championships in Sydney on Tuesday.
York, 19, qualified equal 12th-fastest into the semi-finals of the 50m backstroke in a time of 26.83 seconds – almost three tenths quicker than his previous best.
He touched the wall 0.07 seconds slower in his semi-final the same night to finish 15th overall.
“I’m pretty happy. I was hoping to get under 27, so that met my expectations,” York said.
“I was pretty nervous because of the TV coverage … it was pretty cool.
“I’d definitely like to aim for a final next year.”
Head coach Ben Hiddlestone was thrilled for his rapidly improving charge.
“Brad’s a late bloomer and training has picked up at a late stage for him,” he said.
“If he keeps getting stronger and technically better he’ll keep slashing his time down.
“It would be a whole different story if he was 19 and had been training twice a day from the age of 10, doing weights for five years and doing that time for a long time.
“He still has a lot of improvement left in him.”
York will also compete in the 100m backstroke and the 50m and 100m butterfly.
He pulled out of the 200m freestyle due to persistent soreness in his right shoulder that has plagued him for the past month.
Fellow teenagers Aleysha Tokai, Craig Watson, Josh Beaver and Tyrone Dobrunz also qualified for the open nationals.
But Hiddlestone felt it would be detrimental to their Australian Age Championships’ hopes if they were to compete at this week’s competition. “This week is supposed to be the hardest week they do all year,” he said.
“Some clubs decide to fly up and let their age-group swimmers who’ve qualified race it, but I don’t think, long term, it’s the way to go with trying to get good results.”
The TigerSharks won two bronze medals at last year’s Australian Age Championships and Hiddlestone is hoping for even better results next month.
“We definitely want more medals. We came back with two bronze last year, so we’re hoping we can go forward on that as a team,” he said.
Meanwhile, Casey swimmers competed in the Last Blast ’09 meet at Bayside Swimming Club on Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the Australian Age Championships. Sixteen-year-old Dylan Warren managed to add to the club’s national qualifiers with an impressive 400m freestyle swim.
