Third swimmer off to nationals

RISING talent of the pool Liana McClaer is the third Mildura Swimming Club member to qualify for the Australian Age Championships.

The 14-year-old’s 50m backstroke time of 32.82, achieved at the weekend’s South Australian Age Long Course Championships, saw her book her place at next month’s event on the Gold Coast.

McClaer joins club mates Danika Garner (Girls 14 50m butterfly) and Sam Mills (Boys 14 100m and 200m breaststroke) in qualifying for next month’s event.

Garner fell short of adding the 100m butterfly to her qualification by 0.01 seconds, but gets another opportunity to pass that time at the Victorian Country All Junior competition on Saturday and Sunday.

The Mildura squad cultivated an outstanding team performance in Adelaide, finishing 11th overall out of 43 clubs and passing 87 personal best times out of 112 total swims.

Joaquin Leal-Kaiser, 13, smashed his 200m butterfly PB by 12 seconds to secure the club’s only gold medal, alongside bronze in 100m fly, Elsie Cock, 11, earned silver medals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, and Garner received two silvers in 50m and 100m butterfly.

Mildura Swimming Club director of coaching Josh Barila said it was a huge performance from all 12 team members who competed.

“It definitely is a great result for the club,” he said.

“Obviously there’s individual results but there is also that that team element that comes into play as well. It was hot and being a heated indoor pool, it made for tough conditions but they did a great job.

“Most of the swimmers are members of the Sunraysia Academy of Sport and I believe the gym programs as part of that have a played a big role in their development.”

Barila has seen the development of the young swimmers up close and said McClaer had earned her place in the national championships.

“Liana would have started with us about three seasons ago and she has worked really hard to get that continued improvement,” he said.

“Making the national time has been a really big goal of hers for the past 12 months and she managed to drop one and a half seconds from her 50m backstroke time to do so.

“Entries close for qualifying on Monday so the SA champs was one of her last chances to do so. There’s one more event this weekend but at least she can be a bit more relaxed about it now.”

Since relocating from Melbourne in early 2023, Leal-Kaiser has shown he is an emerging talent.

“He’s only 13, so he’s still a year away from being able to qualify for National Age but he’s already putting together times that show he’s going to be right there as soon as the opportunity comes,” Barila said.

“He dropped a huge amount of time to win the gold … he has a bright future in the pool.”

The Victorian Country All Junior competition begins on Saturday at 10am at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.