Branden Wilson, Kiera Shaw and Madison Heywood represented Shepparton Swimming Club at the recent national championships.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
A Shepparton duo is diving head first into a world swimming championships bid.
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Coming off a successful national championships campaign, two young guns from Shepparton Swimming Club have put their best flipper forward for a shot at representing the country.
Branden Wilson, Kiera Shaw and Madison Heywood were Shepparton Swimming Club’s three representatives at the national championships in Brisbane in mid-April.
Juniors Shaw and Heywood impressed in their breaststroke format with head coach Leanne Houkes-Wilson praising the two swimmers’ efforts.
“The girls were up first, Keira and Maddy were in the age championships; they both swam really well and held their own in their races and achieved the times I was expecting them to,” Houkes-Wilson said.
“They thoroughly enjoyed it, it’s a good high-level competition."
Houkes-Wilson continued her plaudits for Wilson who achieved career-bests in Brisbane.
“Branden did really well,” she said.
“The goal for the meet was for him to get into an age final for his races and he got into age finals for each of his races, which was fantastic.
“He had three events, made a final in all three and PB’d in every race."
Shepparton Swimming Club’s Branden Wilson and Madison Heywood are off to world championship trials.
With national championships done, Heywood and Wilson’s attention turns to world trials in Adelaide, which begin Monday.
Houkes-Wilson said both swimmers were excited to demonstrate their potential against the best in the country.
“The trials that kick off on Monday are basically the top swimmers in Australia competing for a spot to compete at the Singapore World (Aquatics) Championships,” she said.
“Branden is swimming the 100m and 50m breaststroke and Maddy will be swimming 50m breast.”
Shepparton Swimming Club has been on a six-week break, but is returning to the pool for its short course (25m instead of 50m pool) season.
Houkes-Wilson said she was eager to see all of her swimmers back competing.
“We have country championships as the next goal for the whole club to see if we can get some swimmers representing there,” she said.
“That will be in Bendigo in August and then we follow on with our state competitions and national competitions.
“We have a few things to look forward to, but in general just getting the kids in the water and racing will be fantastic.”
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