EMERGING swimming star Liana McClaer has started her season on a positive note by winning gold at the South Australian Age Short Course Swimming Championships.
The 15-year-old from Mildura Swimming Club finished first in the 15 girls’ 100m backstroke, also winning bronze in the 50m backstroke.
Through 11 swims at the event McClaer recorded six personal best times, including shaving six seconds from her 200m backstroke time, and qualified for five finals.
The rising talent competed in her first Australian Age Swimming Championship on the Gold Coast in April in the girls’ 14 50m backstroke, crediting her coaching and extra gym training through Sunraysia Academy of Sport for her improvement.
Club director of coaching Josh Barila said McClaer’s improvement over the past 18 months had been outstanding.
“She has come along in leaps and bounds – the past 12 months especially she’s seen some great improvement in her times,” Barila said.
Fellow Australian Age competitor Danika Garner, who had a superb 2023-24 season, also left the Adelaide event with a bronze medal.
In her preferred event of the 50m butterfly the 14-year-old finished third in her final, one of eight for which she qualified.
Among eight PBs, her best was breaking her previous 200m individual medley time by four seconds.
Jack Burford, 14, swam personal best times in all 12 swims across the event, the biggest being a 10-second improvement on his 200m backstroke.
Burford qualified for three finals, with his best result being a fifth-place finish in the 100m IM.
The youngest of the four Mildura competitors, Riley Garner, 12, qualified for the 400m freestyle and took a massive 16 seconds off his best time in an 11th-placed finish.
His event was for a combined 12-13-year age group, and the Mildura swimmer was the fastest of the bottom-age racers.
