That’s according to Di Silk, president of the newly formed QT Swimming which sees swimmers from Queanbeyan and Telopea competing under the same banner.

The Queanbeyan and Telopea Swim Clubs have shared an increasingly close relationship for the past two years. But it is only in the past three months that bond has been officially recognised in the formation of QT Swimming.

Silk said the association had been formed in a bid to provide their swimmers with better competitive opportunities.

 “With both clubs being relatively small, neither of us really had enough swimmers in a lot of age groups to be able to form relay teams at competitions,” Silk said.

“As it was both Telopea and Queanbeyan were looking at losing swimmers, either to each other or to bigger clubs so to prevent that we thought we’d form QT Swimming.

“QT Swimming was created to give swimmers from both clubs better opportunities at a competitive level without having to leave either club.”

Silk said QT Swimming currently boasts a line-up of about 54 swimmers, on par with average size Canberra clubs.

And she said cooperation between Queanbeyan and Telopea already extended to the mutual use of training facilities and fundraising activities.

Last week’s 13-18yrs State Age championships, meanwhile, saw QT swimmer Andrew Catchpole defend his 100m and 200m NSW State Age breaststroke titles.

Having already qualified for April’s Australian Championships in his two pet events, Catchpole also set a national time in the 800m freestyle after posting a 22-second personal best.

And the Campbell High student is still hopeful of qualifying for the 200m and 400m individual medleys.

Queanbeyan swimmer Alexi Boulton finished 26th in the 200m breaststroke and 41st in the 100m breaststroke while Taylar Tisma finished 35th in the 200m breaststroke.