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]

SPW swimmers are frequently in the news, so we thought we’d share some of the stories with you. If you know of any news articles to share, please let us know and we’ll post them for everyone to see.

Strong Results in Short Course (Westside News 21/7/2010)

Westside swimmers were in good form at last week’s Australian Short Course Championships with some solid results across the board. Full story

Rice nursing shoulder before Games (The Australian 20/7/2010)

Stephanie Rice will reduce her workload at next month’s Pan Pacs in order to nurse her right shoulder through to the Delhi Commonwealth Games. For the first time since she burst on to the international scene at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Rice has been forced to drop the 400m individual medley from her program at a major championship because of an interrupted preparation. Full story

Kukla goes straight to the top (The Australian 19/7/2010)

YOLANE Kukla unveiled a new straight-armed freestyle technique as she dashed to her first national short-course title in Brisbane last night. Kukla, the 14-year-old revelation of the national trials in March, continues to impress, setting a personal best time of 24.14sec in the 50m freestyle to win by more than half a second from national record-holder Marieke Guehrer (24.67sec). Full story

Stephanie Rice set for career-defining Commonwealth Games program (The Courier Mail 14/7/2010)

SWIMMING'S glamour girl Stephanie Rice is shedding all other distractions and is toughening up ahead of a career-defining Commonwealth Games program. The Queenslander has endured painkilling injections in her injured shoulder just to be available for the Games and has placed all other commitments on the backburner. Full story

SPW moving forward (Westside News 14/7/2010)

THE powerhouse which is St Peter’s Western Swimming Club received another boost last week with Swimming Australia announcing the Indooroopilly-based club as a Centre of Excellence. SPW was one of a select group of clubs which met the sport’s national body’s requirements. Full story

Pool of Gold in Samoa (Westside News 12/7/2010)

THE 2010 Oceania Championships wrapped up in Samoa last week with Australia claiming 66 medals across five days of competition. The team won 32 gold medals to blitz the competition, with St Peter’s Western athletes contributing significantly. Full story

Eyeing the English Channel (Westside News 23/6/2010)

OPEN-WATER swimming world champion Brendan Capell will negotiate debris, oil and up to 1000 ships when he attempts to break the record for swimming the English Channel. Full story

Open Water Swimming Grand Prix 2010 (Swimming World Magazine 28/6/2010)

In the 36km race in Italy, 20 swimmers (12 men and eight women) from nine countries took to the water. In the men's field, medal favourite Damian Blaum (ARG) dominated the operations, touching first in 6h58m05s. Runner-up Brendan Capell (AUS) took silver, clocking 7h02m02s, while local hope Andrea Volpini (ITA) claimed third spot. Full story 

In other news…

GO Club Ranking

SPW has been awarded Silver status in the 2010 Australian Unity GO Club PB rankings by Swimming Australia. This status is graded across 5 key areas (memberships, administration, activities, coaching/officiating and marketing/promotion). The program gives our club the opportunity to bench mark against clubs from our state and across the country, as well as monitoring changes to our own club’s performance from year to year. This is a commendable achievement and we hope to improve our status in 2011, by continually improving our club across these 5 key areas.

SPW’s Brendan Capell has won bronze in the elite British Gas Great East Swim Race, in a time of 17:02:80.

Swum over one mile, Capell was hot on the heels of the winner Aussie Ky Hurst and silver medallist Belgium’s Tom Vangeneugden.

The British Gas Great East Swim was held in London on 3 July. It is the biggest outdoor swim in the South of England with 5,000 participants. The prestigious events supports several charities.

For more information, visit: http://www.greatswim.org/