From September 20th-22nd the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra will host over 200 young swimmers competing in the 2013 State Teams Age Short Course Championships. This three day short course competition will see the Australian states of; New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia battle one another for the team title.
The event began in 2009 and has run annually since with Queensland winning the title each year.
Previous editions of this meet have seen such swimmers as 2012 Olympians Cameron McEvoy, Brittany Elmslie, Jayden Hadler and Daniel Tranter win hardware representing their home states.
Junior World Championships medalists Alanna Bowles, Blake Jones and Chelsea Gillet, World Championships team member Chelsea Gubecka and five-time Australian Age Champion Kyle Chambers will all be competing in this year’s event.
Swimming Australia Director of High Performance Michael Scott is excited to see the talented young Australians have an opportunity to race, “The short course format of this meet gives our young swimmers the chance to gain valuable race practise and helps to develop their underwater skills in a competitive environment,” said Scott.
“As we build on the positive steps made internationally this year, it is important that age group swimmers take opportunities like this to practise their racing and skills.”
There will be four age groups; girls 13-14 and 15-16, boys 14-15 and 16-17. Each state is allowed a maximum of 40 swimmers with a maximum of 10 from each age group.
Full meet results can be found here
At the conclusion of the meet there will be several swimmers selected to stay behind at the AIS to participate in an athlete talent Id camp or a youth camp.
2012 final combined scores:
Queensland – 2059
Victoria – 1571
New South Wales – 1547.5
Western Australia – 1089.5
South Australia – 785
Tasmania – 206
Northern Territory – 95
Full results from last year’s event can be found here