Taking on the Aussies

 

It's been just over a week since our very own Clara Foster returned from competing with the NZ Junior Team at the Australian Age Group Champs, so I thought it was time to have a catch up to see what it was like swimming over the ditch!

You've had a week to recover - so overall what was the experience like?  It was fun!  It was great getting to know some of the other swimmers on the team - they were people I knew of and recognised from meets at home, but this was a chance to get to know them properly and that was pretty cool.  It was a bit overwhelming at first - just with the amount of swimmers at the meet, and they were sooooo fast.  They were even fast in the warm-up!

What were the highlights of the trip?  Definitely getting into a final.  The uniform and the NZ caps!  The caps were reversible with white on one side and black on the other.  If you were competing in a heat you wore white, and if you made a final you wore black on the outside.

Any lowlights?  Getting the migraine and having the neck injury was a low point.  So was my bed!  It was really noisy!  The food was just ok - we ended up resorting to Subway for lunch but the dinners were ok.  The hotel in Aussie makes the Brentwood look positively awesome!

How did it feel putting on the NZ uniform?  It was really cool.  It made me feel proud of what I'd achieved and I felt really happy.

And what were the Aussies like?  They were really friendly - they were great.  There was a real fun atmosphere at the meet and they were friendly at marshalling.  It was great seeing Kyle Chalmers too.  Who?  He won the 100m free for 16 year olds in 49.27!  (Ed. note:  He's also swimming in a relay at the World Champs at Kazan before going to Singapore for the Junior World Champs)

And what about NAGs? Are you looking forward to it?  Definitely!  My goal is to pb the 200m breast.  Medals would be nice too - but I want to do well in the 200m breast. Its a tough race to swim so if you swim it well, its a great feeling.

Well - good luck for NAGs Clara and well done for being selected for the NZ team - we were all very proud of you :-)

 

Australian Age Group Championships - Results