Youth Sports Weekend: Swimming Speedo Sprints Finals

This weekend we traveled to Sydney for the Speedo Sprint Finals; A NSW state competition where the best 3 swimmers from each district came together for a day of competition at Sydney Olympic Park. The venue where the Olympic games were swum in 2000 and Ian Thorpe broke the world 400m freestyle record.

Flash was so excited about going, we literally couldn’t stop her from jumping up and down.  I was afraid she was going to exhaust herself with excitement and anticipation!!

Early that morning she proudly wore her ACT uniform and we drove nervously to SOPAC in the cold and quiet of the early morning.

But the pool was alive!!

The venue was simply a gigantic space, with so many people!! Just to be there and experience the atmosphere of such a competition was amazing!

I was so proud of my daughter. She showed no sign of nerves (but I knew they were there) as she went off to complete her warm-up in her new team swimming cap. She battled the absolute chaos of the marshalling area when the poor race official was swamped by 70 excited and anxious 8 year old girls in their first ever state competition.

Flash stood up on that diving block, dived in and swam her little heart out. I’m not sure I could have done that at 8 years old.

The competition itself was dominated by the Sydney Metropolitan Clubs. I’m not really sure of the reason for this, but the city clubs definitely dominated in the medals in every age group. The Sprint 50m events are not Flashes strength , but she swam really well in desperately close races (just compare some of the times) to win a couple of her heats. When the overall times were calculated Flash fininshed 11th, 12th, 16th and 24th in her events.

Flash swam four personal best times and is getting faster at every meet! She has come such a long way. This time last year, she was still in learn-to-swim lessons in the 20m baby pool!! I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

After the races, Flash and her friend celebrated by running through the fountains at SOPAC with smiles from ear-to-ear!

The day was long. exhausting and nerve wracking…and I didn’t even swim! It was a fabulous experience though, and one that we will remember.

Has your child been involved in a youth sport this weekend? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below, or on the SportyMummy  facebook page. You can also link the URL of your blog post to the linky tool below. 

One of my aims for this little SportyMummy blog, is to develop a Youth Sports community where parents can support, encourage and motivate each other to support their children’s participation in youth sports. If your children have participated in a youth sport or an active pursuit, you can link up your post with the linky below and share the fun!


Usually I aim to have a Youth Sports post up every Sunday, but has we arrived home from Sydney yesterday, I am a little late and blogging on Tuesday....and you know what that means!


I'm linking up with Jess at Diary of a SAHM for #IBOT (I blog on Tuesdays) pop over and read some fantastic Tuesday posts!