By Bethany Alvaro
More than 1000 Sydney Catholic Schools students dove into a series of four secondary conference swimming carnivals which ends this month.
This is a chance for students who excelled in school-based swimming contests to compete against other students across their region at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
Students participating in the Conference 1 competition on Monday 26 February managed to keep their eyes on the prize and set extraordinary records, despite pop superstar Taylor Swift performing next door at Accor Stadium on the same day.
Students set 21 new records, with nine of these coming from Brigidine College, Randwick.
The college also took home the overall championship title for schools’ girls’ competition.
Students are pushing themselves as hard as they can to progress to the next stage of the competition, hoping to land a place in the Sydney Swimming Championships on the 25 March.
Only two students (the first and second winners) from each event can move forward.
Students in Conferences 1 and 2 have already completed their competitions, with conferences 3 and 4 still to go in narrowing down the best swimmers across the Sydney Catholic Schools network.
With students gaining determination and training harder year after year, it is no surprise that the Conference 1 and 2 competitions have seen multiple records being smashed.
Forty-four records were broken at the Conference 2 competition, yet one student shined through.
Chloe Joh from Marist Sisters College, Woolwich, broke four records in the girls’ 12-year-old age group.
She set a new bar for 50 metre freestyle at 29.52 seconds, 50 metre butterfly at 32.08 seconds, 50 metre breaststroke at 38.97 seconds, and aided in a team record for the 200 metre freestyle relay, at 2:01 seconds.
Chloe also received the 12 Year Girls Age Champion Medal as a result of her incredible achievement of winning gold in all 12 events she competed in.
Chloe has been swimming since she was six years old and trains at least 18 hours in a typical week.
And the work pays off. Last year she won the silver medal at the School Sports Australia competition for breaststroke, an accomplishment she reflects proudly on.
“My coach has always pushed me to train harder and I have always had a dream to become an Olympian one day” she said.
“I felt extremely proud of myself last week,” she added.
“I also felt relieved because my first Conference 2 swimming carnival was over and now, I can focus on the pathway hopefully to Schools Sports Australia.”
To stay updated, refer to sport.syd.catholic.edu.au