The Yeronga Yatala Pies packed a meaty Wednesday with the backstroke splash and dash. First up in her first event, Eliana entered the chat with a nice wake-up swim to get her ready for her 200 breaststroke later in the week. Luka ran into the pool deck hoping to see his brethren but unfortunately they were fast asleep so he stood up and delivered a great PB albeit injured on one leg. Lola continued her sprint dominance while Avo showed some great speed, nodding to herself in approval as she raced. Maggie completed her 9th race of the meet, grinding both the lane rope and another event. Alex “A+” Anthony dominated early, finishing the heats as the first QLDer—an exciting medal hopeful for the final tonight. Vickiii, fresh off her schoolies taper, smashed through her 50 back PB by over a second, which is the 5th fastest time in THE WORLD this year. To round out our backstrokers was the bandit back in action and more confident than ever, holding some great rates and showing how much he’s learnt this term.

Special shout out to Ebony on her final swim in YP colours!! Ebs, you’ve been a pleasure to coach—you’ve been a phenomenal role model to our younger swimmers, you have a great work ethic, and we’re excited for you to start your next chapter in life!

Neve continued her final era’s tour in style with her last ever 100 fly, floating down the last 50 like she was on a cloud we dipped under 1:10 and were all smiles.

400 Free boys up next! The bromance begged Swimming Queensland to reorder the heats so they could be next to each other—and so it was! Both boys took it out hard, knowing what they had to do to make a final tonight. Unfortunately, Archie got confused at 100m that there was still triple the length to go, and in true bromance form, willed his counterpart to place 9th and into tonight’s final. Great work, Lewis!!

Maggie “Miguel” Butler dedicated race number 10 to Mitch “Michelle” Pumpa. Showing how important it is to be able to make changes through a meet like this, Miguel fixed her dreaded right arm in warm up and it was great to see her carry that into her race!!

Sadie rounded out our heat sessions with a 200 breast. Fresh off the 100 yesterday, she was out solid and back even better. FINALLY smashing through the 3:00 minute barrier (which is a big deal in breastroke events).

Day 5 and the finals are a flowing with 3 tonight. First up Alex “A+” Anthony continues to prove that she is a sprinter and that we shouldn’t make her do any 200’s…..or 400’s…..ever!! To further stamp her sprinting claim she won a silver medal in the 50 back final!! Absolutely fantastic race especially her ability to start making adjustments in warm up. It shows a quickly growing maturity of racing.
Vicki continued the back stroke party, continuing her great form, earning a bronze medal in the open division and a gold medal in her age group. All attention turns to tomorrows 100 back and first official step towards comm games qualification.

Finally we had an audacious 400 free final. A question I’ve been asking athletes all week “what does a win look like for you” the answer for Lewis tonight was a consistent middle 200. For context, this morning our stroke counts started at 40 and ended up at 46 but tonight we started at 41 and only went to 43. We managed to take 6 less strokes over all and still edge out a PB in what is race number 12 of this week!

Happy day 5