Swimmers shine in Sydney and Budapest
Jewish swimmers of all ages excelled on the NSW and international stages late last month - teen Maya Murphy, and masters swimmers Barry and Michael Carp.
JEWISH swimmers of all ages excelled on the NSW and international stages late last month.
After representing Australia at the Maccabiah Games in July, Victorian brothers Barry and Michael Carp continued competing for the green and gold, this time at the FINA World Masters Championships in Budapest.
Competing in the 50-54 year-old age bracket, older brother Barry won a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle [57.36 seconds] and, despite breaking an Australian swimming record, just missed out on a podium-finish in the 100m breaststroke final, finishing fourth.
Michael competed in the 45-49 year-old division, and between them the brothers competed in a combined 11 events and posted several Personal Best (PB) times.
Performing well on this stage was extremely gratifying,” Barry told The AJN.
Michael described it as being “without doubt the absolute highlight of my swimming life”.
In Sydney last weekend, Knox Pymble Swim Club representative Maya Murphy was the standout Jewish swimmer competing in the NSW 13 and over State Short Course Championships.
Murphy won an impressive tally of five golds, one silver and one bronze, and posted eight PB times in the process, including touching the wall first in the 15 girls 200m backstroke final in 2:14.90 – almost seven seconds faster than her seed time.
She went on to win two more individual gold medals in the 15 girls 100m backstroke and 15 girls 100m butterfly, helped win Knox Pymble gold medals in the 13-15 Girls 200m freestyle relay and 200m medley relay, won silver in the 15 girls 100 freestyle and bronze in the 15 girls 50m freestyle.
A delighted Murphy told The AJN on Monday that working hard in training on her technique and turns certainly helped, but the key to her success was not letting the pressure of a state championships get to her.
“I was a lot more relaxed this time and my attitude was to just enjoy the meet as much as I could with my teammates and have fun, and it worked,” Murphy said.
SHANE DESIATNIK AND DANIEL SHANDLER
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