By JARROD POTTER
NOTHING has ever slowed Jack Howell down – in or out of the pool.
Howell, 12, from Berwick, loves everything sports-wise, but his first great success came last week as he touched in for multiple state swimming titles.
Howell was born without a left hand, giving him an athletes-with-disability (AWD) swimming classification of S10, and he has quickly risen through the swimming ranks, both at the school-swimming arena and with the Casey TigerSharks.
The Brentwood Park Primary School sports captain led by example last week, when he brought back two gold medals from the School Sport Victoria (SSV) primary school swimming championships.
It’s an amazing result in isolation, but truly extraordinary for someone who has only learned to swim in the last two years.
“I’ve only actually been into it about two years now,” Howell said. “It’s been a good two years I guess, and I’ve learned a lot from the swimming lessons I’ve been to and my club – Casey TigerSharks – as well.”
Howell had to pick his favourite two strokes to compete, the most difficult part of the meet, but his choice to go with freestyle and backstroke paid off handsomely as he battled his long-time rival to take out the gold.
“I only went in backstroke and freestyle as in primary school you can only choose two – they were the second and third events,” Howell said. “I was swimming against a person and I had high hopes, but when I finished second I was devastated and the next year I said to Mum, ‘I had to beat this kid’.”
Touching in at 42.96 seconds in the boys 9-13 50m freestyle multi-class, he backed up his stellar swim with a 50.16 to take out the backstroke final as well and become a dual state champion and earn national qualifying times to potentially represent the state.
“The backstroke swim was really close, but freestyle I won by about three seconds,” Howell said. “I like freestyle as it’s my faster stroke, and I like getting my times up and basically speeding up to keep up with all the two-handed kids in the club.
“Very special in a way to be representing my school and the state against the rest of Australia.”
The Casey TigerShark all-rounder won’t have to choose next year, and he’ll get a chance to swim all four strokes at the secondary school championships.
With swimming, cross country running and athletics already on his sporting radar, Howell admitted he wants to play footy the most and hopefully join a local club in the immediate future.
“I don’t play in a club, but I’m in the school team at the moment,” Howell said. “Sometime soon I’d like to play in a footy team, but that’s up to Mum and Dad.”
He wanted to thank family, his school and his Casey TigerSharks coach Julie Janz for their support.
