A Year Three MIA swimming sensation has aced a regional swimming competition, and will now compete in a statewide event in Sydney in March.
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Harrison Waide, a student at St Patricks Catholic College in Griffith, put in an astonishing performance at the Southern Inland Swimming Association championships in Boorowa late last year; and then backed it back up at his own school swimming carnival last week.
At the Southern Inland event, he competed across two divisions.
He first entered the seven years and under division, and picked up:
First places in 25m Freestyle.
First place in 25m Butterfly.
First place in 25m Backstroke.
First place in 25m Breaststroke.
He then competed in the under eight division, where he finished with:
First place in the 50m freestyle.
First place in the 50m butterfly.
First place in the 50m backstroke.
Second place in the 50m backstroke.
He will now go on to compete in the Speedo Sprints Finals in Homebush in on Saturday March 10; where he will represent Southern Inland Swimming Association (SIISA) against other regions in the state.
SISA was formed in 2010 are includes the swimming zones of Murray, Riverina and South West NSW.
Mum Annette said, “he’s only just turned eight, so he was swimming against boys who are older than him”.
Young Harrison has made a habit of beating children who are bigger than him.
Last week, he secured a second place in the 100-metres freestyle event at his school swimming carnival open event; finishing ahead of students in Year five and six.
“Harrison has been swimming since he was five years old,” Annette said.
“He has always loved the water, his older sister is a great swimmer too, and he’s always tagged along with her.”
In fact, Harrison appears to be a bit of an all-rounder.
“He’s very sporty, and seems to do well at all types of sports,” Annette said.
“He’s very easy to parent, he likes to give things a go”.
Grandfather John Bortolazzo, who writes a golf column for The Area News, said he expected big things in the future from young Harrison.
February is the month of schools swimming carnivals across the MIA, with North Griffith (Monday), Beelbangera primary (Tuesday) and Griffith East (Wednesday) primary schools scheduled to hold their major swimming events this week.