TWO of Queanbeyan's most talented junior swimmers will be hoping to set National qualifying times as they take to the pool at the NSW State Age Championships over the next week.
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Queanbeyan Leagues Swim Club's Claire Molineux and Alexie Boulton are both within striking distance of posting qualifying times for April's Australian Championships.
Molineux will swim at the 10-12yrs State Age which kicks off today while Boulton will contest the 13-18rs Championships from the 20-25th of January. Both competitions will be held at the Sydney Aquatic Centre.
"I think Claire will do well in the 200m backstroke and Alexie should go well in the breaststroke," QLSC head coach Jan Eldridge said of the duo's chances. "They've been training and working exceptionally hard as all the kids have been.
"Alexie's been doing about nine sessions a week and Claire's been doing seven or eight training right through the holidays.
"They haven't had much of a break from the pool at all but you don't really have much choice in that if you want to swim well."
Eldridge said both swimmers would need to knock about 1.5 seconds off their current personal best times in their pet events to qualify for nationals later this year - a goal she said was very much achievable.
"I'm hoping they'll qualify [in Sydney]," she said. "Alexie's already done the time short course, now she just has to do it long course so hopefully she'll be able to get it although it is a harder swim without the turn.
"If they don't qualify this time though, they've still got a couple of meets to go [before Nationals]."
Also representing QLSC at this year's State Age will be Alex Lakic, Brad Rauter and Nik Trajkovski in the 10-12yrs and Taylar Tisma in the 13-18yrs.
Following NSW State Age, Queanbeyan's swimmers will compete in the ACT Championships before the NSW Country Championships from the 22-23rd of January.