2018 New South Wales Senior State Age Championships Day 4-5 Recap
- 14thDecember – 19thDecember
- Sydney, Australia
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
- Start List
The penultimate day of racing at the NSW State Age Champs finished overnight with a dominant performance coming from 13-year old Robert Thorpe in the 13-14-years 800 Freestyle. Thorpe took victory in a 9 second lifetime best of 8:30.95. He came in a whopping 20 seconds under the NSW record set by Se-Bom Lee in 2015 and an even more impressive 42 seconds under the meet record set in 2017. The field was incredibly strong with the top 3 swimmers all finishing in NSW record pace and the top 9 swimmers coming in under the meet record. More impressive still is that Thorpe is 13 and now holds the 13-14-year records giving him another year to improve them further.
Also impressing on Day 5 was Stuart Swinburn of University of New South Wales who took a powerful victory in the 17-year 200 backstroke. Swinburn finished in a 2:02.74 close to 7 seconds clear of silver medalist Jarrod Lee (2:09.29). The medal was Swinburn’s 5th of the competition and his 3rd gold.
On Day 4 of the champs 14-year old Bianca Walton dropped an enormous 56 seconds from her lifetime best in the 12-14-year 1500 freestyle (17:32.54). She took gold ahead of Averil Jones of Hunter who dropped 37 seconds from her lifetime best to pick up the silver (17:49.81).
15-year old Emily Jones narrowly missed the NSW record in the 15-years 100 backstroke. She took gold in a 1:03.11 less than 0.15 of a second away from the record time of 1:02.97. It was Jones’ 4th medal of the competition and her second gold.
Se-Bom Lee dominated the field in the 17-years 200 IM. He swum just over his lifetime best but still took gold in a 2:04.23 – over 6 seconds clear of the closest competitor. It was Lee’s 4th medal of the meet and his second gold. He brought that count to 5 on Day 5 with a silver in the 17 years 400 freestyle (3:58.04) just behind Manly’s Nick Jennings (3:57.92).
Robert is one of a few stars at this year’s NSW Age Championships. He actually broke that 800m FS record about 50 minutes after winning 400m IM. He also won 1500m with a very good time and came second in 400m FS. His stroke is a bit unorthodox, more like Paltrinieri than Ian Thorpe :), very high stroke rate, strong upper body move. His open water times are really strong too.
Wait a sec: an Aussie teen named Thorpe breaking mid-dist and/or distance records?
Where have I seen this before…?
You must be crazy, stop hallucinating.
Memories!!!!