Marlins set for Swimming North Coast Long Course Championships

The local swimmers are eyeing a campaign of 130 individual events and seven relays.

Ranging in age from eight to 16, the Marlins will be aiming for State, Country and National qualifying times.

Coffs Harbour is the geographical centre of the area, which stretches from the Queensland border in the north to Bulahdelah in the south.

Swimming North Coast has experienced a massive increase in entries this year. The overall entries stand at 3552 including relays which is a rise of 530 on last year – and the swimmers count is 446, a rise of 52 on 2017.

A busy weekend is expected – and it should bring a feast of good swimming times and see area records fall. Technical officials will have their work cut out for them.

The top five clubs swimmer wise are Coffs Harbour 81, Port Macquarie 48, Trinity Lismore 39, Forster 27 and Alstonville 27. This should make for an interesting club point score between the powerhouses of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Trinity Lismore.

A number of national swimmers will hit the pool:

Open swimmers – Taylor Corry (Trinity Lismore) and Aidan Yourell (Lismore Workers)

Age swimmers – Dane Jeffery and Claire Van Kampen (both Forster), Hayley Bendle (Murwillumbah), Luke Mapstone, Nathan Smith, Tom Berryman, Mathilda King and Pheobe Bentley (Port), and Tylah Crabtree, Rebecca Nichols, Jack Hosking and Aidan Jensen (Trinity).

Multi class national swimmers – Sarah and Claire McIntosh and Maddeline Goodridge (Laurieton), McKinley Arnison and Ben Auckram (Lismore Workers), Morgan Jean (Wauchope), Nathaniel Bentley and Kimberley Goshorn (Port) and Jamie Plunkett (Grafton).

Swimming North Coast will also welcome back to the area Mekayla Everingham from Port Macquarie who should do well in the open events.

Swimming at these championships is part of the criteria for the Area Development squad membership for 2019.

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