Off to Nationals 2019

This year, we have two exceptional swimmers who will be travelling to Adelaide on the 15th of April for the Australian Age Swimming Championships.

Brooke Collyer, 14, trains 8 times a week at Grace Swimming. Her first experience with swimming was an infant class with her Mum. During the first class her Mum saw the other parents gently pushing their babies to the bottom of the pool and letting them float back up, and so she did the same, not realising that they had been progressing up to that point for 6 months. Giving both the Swimming Instructor and Brooke’s Mum quite a fright, thankfully Brooke floated to the surface with a smile on her face and has been a swimmer ever since. At the age of 6, the School Swim Team was short on 9 year old swimmers and asked Brooke if she wouldn’t mind swimming up a few years. She went on to win Age Champion and fell in love with the spirit of competing, and has now been training at Grace for the past two years.
“I am the biggest fan of my coach Josh and really couldn’t have made it to Nationals without him”, she says. “He is the nicest person I have ever met and he pushes me every day to strive for my goals. My favourite part about Grace Swimming is the Club Nights. Racing is such a big part of my life, so it is so good to be able to just take all the pressure off and spend the night talking to my favourite people and playing handball with the little kids, then jumping in and doing the thing I love the most.”
Brooke will be competing at Nationals in the 14 Girls 200m Individual Medley. “I am overly excited to go to Adelaide to compete”, she says. “I’m not too nervous but I am sure I will be as it gets closer.” Brooke been swimming at States since 2015, so is no stranger to competition. Her next goal is to be Brisbane Champion, then State Champion, all the way to National Champion, and her biggest goal is to be a part of the Australian Dolphins Swim Team.

Kobey Lake, 14, also started swimming lessons as an infant, and has now been swimming with us here at Grace for 6 years. His enthusiasm and passion for swimming was sparked when his parents took him to his first Meet at the age of 9. He picked up a few medals and has loved swimming and competing ever since.
Kobey will be competing in the 50m Freestyle and the 100m Freestyle, and he is very proud to have qualified for Nationals, but was not expecting it. He qualified for Nationals training just 4 times a week, and has picked up to 6 sessions per week in preparation. The desire to set a goal and work hard to achieve it is what drives him to train hard and persist, and his goals are to become an International Swimmer and to one day be on the Olympic Team.

We wish both Brooke and Kobey all the very best at Nationals, and hope they have an amazing time!
Go Team Grace!