Marlins lap up medals

Three swimmers from the Manjimup Marlins Swimming Club travelled to Perth last month to compete in the Sunsmart WA State Age Swimming Championships at HBF Stadium.

At the competition held at HBF Stadium on December 15, the club finished 13th of the 48 clubs who competed at the December 15 meet and second of the country teams, beaten only by Bunbury.

Jack Perry, 12, won a gold medal in all four of his event swims, Callum Krispyn, 14, came fourth in his backstroke event swim, and Brielle Krispyn, 12, won two gold medals out of six of her event swims.

Overall, they competed in 16 events in backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle events, which varied between 50m and 100m each.

Between them, they also managed to break 12 of their personal best times for each race.

Brielle also broke 11 country records, four of which had been previously set more than 20 years ago.

Manjimup Marlins vice-president Peter Krispyn said they had trained four times a week over the course of the year to build up their skills.

“The majority of clubs train a lot more that that, but it can be hard to get four times a week in for us because most of the kids have other sporting commitments in our community as well,” he said.

“The fact they managed to do so well at the event in Perth with just three swimmers is a testament to the ability of the coaches we have and the talent of the kids who represented us.”

He said the club was this year planning to introduce a morning session for the competitive swimmers to attend, to help fit in more training hours and hopefully improve further for the next competition.