National Age Championships 2023

In April our club had 3 of our Gold Squad swimmers qualify for, and compete at the Age Nationals, held on the Gold Coast. Lily, James and Sarah competed alongside swimmers from all over Australia and were accompanied by their parents and Coach Yuriy.


Here is what Yuriy has to say about the teams performance at Age Nationals

Woden Valley Swim Club National Age Championship team represented the club in a manner that I am very proud of – firstly the teamwork and support the swimmers had for each other was fantastic. This event is unique in Australia having swimmers race at this level in an outdoor pool, which presents many unique challenges. Please see below some of the highlights of our swimmer’s performance.

Sarah Bennett, 17

50 Back – 12th Heats and 14th in the ‘B’ Final with a double PB

100 Back – Double PB 15th in Heats and 13th in the ‘B’ Final

James Biddington, 15

200 Back – 9th in Heats and 9th in Final

50 Back – 10th in Heats and 8th in Final

100 Back – 7th in Heats and 5th in Final with a PB

Lily Young, 13

200 Back – Double PB with a 10th in Heats and 7th in Finals

100 Back – 9th in Heats and 8th in Final with a PB

50 Back – Double PB with a 3rd in Heats and 2nd in Final

Lily also was asked to complete in the NSW Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay team and won Gold!

Our swimmers amazing efforts in getting to the A and B finals resulted in Lily, James and Sarah contributing to the combined club points. There were 400 Clubs competing at Age Nationals and our 3 swimmers achieved 77th Nationally and 2nd in the ACT, not far behind Cruiz and the ACT HUB swimmers – what an effort!

Below are the ACT Clubs results, we had great representation across the ACT!

Point scores for Canberra Clubs:

61st Cruiz 8 Swimmers 201 Pts

77th Woden 3 Swimmers 151 Pts

128th Tuggeranong 5 Swimmers 51 Pts

133rd CASC 7 Swimmers 46 Pts

189th Ginninderra 10 Swimmers 5.5 Pts