Big weekend of racing for our F-Teamers

Stef McCarthy and Jacob Hansford (left) and James McKechnie (right)

It was a big three days of racing at the NSW State Championships which were held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre from March 18-21st. Top swimmers from around the country travelled interstate for a chance to squeeze in as much racing as possible before Nationals next month and the Games Trials in June. In order to offer the swimmers a chance to race in similar conditions to the upcoming Tokyo Games, the meet had a different format with Heats held at night and Finals run in the morning.

Queenslander Jacob Hansford has obviously fully recovered from the broken leg he suffered in 2020. He had a massive swim claiming Bronze in the 400m Freestyle. His time of 3:52.72 was only 2 seconds behind Games champion Mack Horton. Jacob also won Bronze in the star studded 800m Freestyle event touching the wall at exactly the same time as Alexander Grant (8:13.78) and three seconds behind Mack Horton.

South Australian breaststroker James McKechnie had a great touch on the wall to claim Bronze by only 0.03 in the 50m Breaststroke and only 0.4 away from the Gold. He just missed out on a spot on the podium in the 100m Breaststroke event finishing .66 behind Jake Packard. In the 200m Breaststroke James battled it out with Jake again to steal the Bronze in a time of 2:18.09.