Benno’s bag at Oz champs
JUNIOR swimmer Benno Negri achieved great success at the 2012 Australian Age Swimming Championships in Brisbane, joining a very rare group of Jewish swimmers to have won a race at the national event.
JUNIOR swimmer Benno Negri achieved great success at the 2012 Australian Age Swimming Championships in Brisbane, joining a very rare group of Jewish swimmers to have won a race at the national event.
“It was really good and I enjoyed it,” Negri, 13, told The AJN. “It all went according to plan, [but] I didn’t really expect these results.”
Negri put in two dazzling displays in the finals of the 12-13 year-old boys backstroke events. The youngster came third in the 100 metre race with a time of one minute, two seconds, before taking out first place in the 200m race in 2.15.
“I was shocked at my times,” Negri said.
“I wasn’t sure how it was going to go and it was a bit daunting at a national event, but they were good results.”
Negri is the first Jewish swimmer to achieve the feat in decades.
“I’ve been involved in swimming for 30 years and I haven’t known of a Jewish national age champion,” NSW Maccabi swimming official Anthony Goodridge told The AJN.
“So we know he’s the first in a very long time.”
Negri continued to shine, also reaching the finals in the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle and 200m individual medley.
The final of the 200m race was only the third time Negri has competed in the event, the youngster improving on his seeded time by more than 10 seconds.
Marni Burger was part of the second-placed team in the 17-18-year-old girls 4 x 100m freestyle relay. Burger, who competed in five other events, then ended her final visit to the championships with a stunning win in the 4 x 100 medley relay.
Kyron Israelsohn took part in the 15-year-old boys blistering 50m freestyle final, finishing the race in seventh place in 24.45 seconds. His time was remarkably only nine-hundredths of a second away from a medal.
ASHLEY SHENKER
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