Port Macquarie Swimming Club record strong results in 2019 NSW Senior State Age Championships

Port Macquarie Swimming Club athletes Hayley Kable, Mathilda King and Phoebe Bentley achieved strong finishes at the tournament from December 13 to 18.

King claimed bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke and collected a hard fought win in the 100-metre breaststroke.

"I had a personal best in each race except one which is good. I think that was mostly due to the hard training we have done," said Ms King.

"I've always come second in the 100 metres. I finally went out fast and held them back in the last lap.

"The whole atmosphere is good down there and obviously we don't have as many people there as other clubs.

"We had a few Japanese swimmers come across this year, so that gives us some racing experience against other countries. I had a chat with them and they train the same as us really, about seven or eight times a week.

"We were all a bit worried about the coaching change this year (from Swimwell to BlueFit) at first, but Cheryl has been really good and she's a really good coach."

Capping off a successful outing was a silver medal in the 200-metre backstroke for Hayley Kable. She pulled through with a national time in the 200m backstroke and contested relay, backstroke and freestyle events.

"I pretty much achieved personal bests in most of my races and then made finals for my 200m and 100m backstroke," she said.

Rounding out the trio were strong finishes for Phoebe Bentley. She collected silver medals in the 50-metre freestyle and 200 Individual Medley. Bentley also won bronzes in the 100-metre freestyle, 400 freestyle and 100-metre breaststroke.

"I placed in the top 10 in most of my races, which was good," she said.

"I've been training really hard and working on my technique. It was really fun and good racing experience against the Sydney kids, there's a lot more competition at state level."

Port Macquarie Swimming Club head coach Cheryl Neville said the Port Macquarie athletes went above and beyond at the competition.

"It's fantastic and I was blown away with the hard work the kids have put in," she said.

"We had about 10 swimmers in Sydney and one boy was very close with fourths in nearly every final.

"At one stage during the second night before the end, we were sitting 17th in points on the board out of more than 100 clubs. We were ahead of a lot of the big clubs.

"We've done a lot more long distance training than we have previously done and there's an accumulation of training as well. We're hoping to still get some placings at national level next year and I believe we can get that."

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