The highly-anticipated Ovens and Murray Swimming Championships were held at Albury Swim Centre across the weekend and produced some stunning results.
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The highlights of the meet included the open age 100m freestyle events.
The Gordon Dowling perpetual trophy for the fastest open age female freestyle swimmer over 100m, first awarded in 1957, was won by Lucinda Macleod from Wodonga City club in a blistering time of 1:00.14.
Considering Lucinda is only 12 years old, the record in this event (held by Olympian Belinda Hocking, 59.44 in 2006) could well be under jeopardy in future years.
Coming in a close second was last years’ winner, Mackensey House, from Wodonga (1:00.53), with Maggie Skewes from Wangaratta (1:01.21) closely behind.
The Dr Worch perpetual trophy for the fastest open age male freestyle swimmer over 100m, first awarded in 1953, was won by 18 year old Harrison Evans from the Wodonga Swimming Club, who improved on his third place finish last last year to win in a time of 56.22.
He was closely followed by Reagan Coates (Wodonga, 56.67) and Will Elgin (Albury North Lavington, 57.04).
Albury was the most successful club overall, followed by Wodonga and Wodonga City Clubs.
House broke Erin McLeave’s 2001 record in the 16 year old female 50m freestyle in a time of 27.94.
Wodonga’s Declan Herring broke two records with times of 31.87 in the 17-35 year old 50m breaststroke and 25.45 in the 50m freestyle.
In the same age group, Harrison Evans, from Wodonga, broke the 100m butterfly record with a 1:01.94.
Skewes was on fire, taking both the 50m (30.90) and 100m (1:07.91) records for butterfly in the 13 years female category from previous Wangaratta star Eliza Ham.
Macleod also eclipsed the record for the 12 years female 100m backstroke in a time of 1:13.27.
Sixteen-year-old Zoe Deacon, from Wodonga, took out the record in her pet event, the 100m breaststroke with a tidy time of 1:19.51.
The older male events for the over 35’s saw a number of records tumble with Russell Ferguson from Wodonga City winning the 100m Breaststroke (1:26.56), 100m Backstroke (1:16.69) and 100m Freestyle (1:04.89).
Teammate Craig Macleod took the record in the 100m Butterfly (1:23.60), while Bailey Smith, from Wodonga, broke the record in the 11 year old boys 50m freestyle with a time of 30.53.
Albury’s Sophie Clifford was most impressive in the 11 year old female 100m breaststroke, breaking Callie Marsh’s 1992 record with a fast 1:33.92 win.
The Ovens and Murray Swimming Championships continue next Sunday with the relay events to be held at Lavington Swim Centre.