SPW’s Grant Irvine and Amy Smith have been swimming well at the Canadian Summer Nationals in Vancouver on the Australia ‘A’ team.

The Australians were relegated to only being allowed to compete in “B” finals at the championships. Grant Irvine clocked the fastest time of the men’s 200m butterfly finals in 1:59.19 and was one of only three swimmers who managed to break the two minute barrier.

Grant Irvine also won the men’s 100m butterfly B Final in 53.91 and in the women’s 100m butterfly Amy Smith won the B Final in a time of 1:00.37.

In other news... Amy Smith swam 2:12.83 to finish sixth in the 200m butterfly. In the 50m butterfly, Amy Smith finished 12^th overall touching in 28.01. Grant Irvine, along with teammates Craig Tucker, Lachlan Staples and Matt Abood, won the 4x100m medley relay in 3:40.76, while the women’s team of Amy Smith, Rachel Goh, Ellen Fullerton, and Merindah Dingjan came second in 4:10.53, just half a second behind the winners.

It's the time of the year when SPW members are due to renew their membership for the upcoming 2010/2011 season. Please complete this membership form and submit it along with payment (cash or cheque only - no credit card payments possible, sorry!) into the box at the pool.

Congratulations to SPW swimmers who competed at the Australian Short Course Championships.

The championships saw some of the best swimmers in Australia and the world competing over 5 days in Brisbane, with 26 SPW swimmers amongst the lineup.

SPW came 4^th on the Final Club Point Score. Congratulations to SPW on winning:

• 3 x Gold medals
• 4 x Silver medals
• 2 x Bronze medals

Our individual medalists are:

• Yolane Kukla – GOLD in the 50 Free
• Meagen Nay – Silver in the 200 Back 
• Madeline Groves – Silver in the 100 Fly 
• Yolane Kukla – Silver in the 50 Fly
• Mitch Larkin – Bronze in 200 Back

We won these Relay Medals:

• Ned McKendry, Ryan Napoleon, Leith Brodie & Kenrick Monk: GOLD in the Men's 4x200 Free Relay
• Amy Allen, Yolane Kukla, Amy Smith & Meagen Nay: GOLD in the 4x200 Free Relay
• Amelia Evatt-Davey, Yolane Kukla, Meagen Nay, Amy Allen: Silver in the Women’s 4x100 Free Relay.
• Leith Brodie, Ned McKendry, Ryan Napoleon & Kenrick Monk: Bronze in the 4x100 Mens Free Relay

Click the link to read on for full SPW results…

SPW’s David Browne has come 15th in the men’s 10km at the FINA World Open Water Swimming Championship in Roberval, Canada.

Very cold conditions saw eight swimmers withdraw during the race. The water was just 17 degrees and dropped ever further at the exposed end of the course during the two hour race.

Brownie had to work very hard with his recovery to get warm after the race.

Italian Valerio Cleri won the race in just over two hours while Browne’s time of 2:01:56 is a good sign for the 25km on Friday.

Well done Brownie!

Update 23/7/2010:

Queenslander David Browne finished the final day of FINA Open Water World Swimming Championship in Roberval, Quebec in eleventh place in the men’s 25km, clocking a brave 5:39:52.440.

The 22-year-old was part of the leading pack for the first 18km of the race before a breakaway, led by eventual second place finisher and world 10km and 25km champion Valerio Cleri (5:32:40.400) from Italy, pulled clear of the pack.

Cleri was eventually beaten by American Alex Myers who out touched the Italian by less than a second in 5:32:39.380, but it was the determined effort of Browne that most impressed Open Water Head Coach Greg Towel.

“Browney swam true to his race plan and was in the mix up until the 18km mark when the pack separated and he wasn’t able to hang on,” said Towle.

“He is an experienced swimmer who has had podium finishes at this venue at past FINA World Cup events and will no doubt learn from this swim.”

[Source: Swimming Australia website]