Shine Shield wraps up successful season

SWIMMING: The Shine Shields have been completed for this session and were a great success.

The Yass Shine Shield saw many up-and-coming young swimmers compete on the night, which is a great sign for Yass swimming.

Abby Jones is a second generation swimmer and showed that she has as much style and ability as her mum Kirby, who also competed in the Shine Shield and has lost little of her speed and determination.

Tashi Phillips, Delanie Brassil, Angus Pack, Ella Cassidy, Kaylee Douven, Tahlia Wullaert, Addie Hinds, Alessia Parducci and Felicity Shannon dominated the eight-years age groups as they all swam their way into placings in the various events.

Both the nine years boys and girls events were additionally well represented on the podium as there was a fierce battle between Yass swimmers Frankie Bush, Tegan Davis and Darcy-Rose Payne to see who could finish on top.

Two Yass boys, Jarred Carey and Riley Gibbs,  were just as competitive as they shared the placings in each event.

Alice Henman starting the backstroke. PHOTO: Sherree Bush

The 10 years girls provided entertaining racing all night as Alice Henman, Bronte Anderson and Gemma Phillips swam exceptionally well in every event with podium finishes.

Not to be outdone by the girls, Gus Hinds and Callum Carniel battled each other all evening and shared the placings.

Darcey Bush yet again displayed his dominance of the 11 years boys age division winning all four of his events, as did Tully Howard in hers.

Dylan Mann had a great night also taking out podium finishes in the freestyle and butterfly.

Nick Hinds has improved out of sight and has come from nowhere to become one of the fastest boys for age in the district and swimming some exceptional PB’s.

The battle between Tom Girdler and Kai Douven continued and both boys have been swimming well as they also shared the top honours in three of their four events.

Connor Bush showed he’s still got it as he powered through the water in the 50m free with a fast time of 28.72 seconds.

Charlie Beck swimming the 50m fly. PHOTO: Sherree Bush

Thomas Carey continued his dominance in the water winning all four of his events and additionally re-breaking his own 50m freestyle record with a speedy 28.88 seconds.

Rhiannon Davis, Ash Fernandez, Shayla Anderson, Jasmine Davis and Pru Bucknell have provided many entertaining and close races throughout the Shine Shield events and this one was no exception.

Between the five of them, out of the possible twelve placings available their names appeared in ten of them.

Mig Fernandez and Jay Ryder also featured heavily on the results page as did the newly crowned veterans Mick Wilkinson, Craig Wilkinson, Lucy Prosser, Kaitlin Kemp, Allex Goode, Brad Wylie and Caitlyn Douven.

Haiden Bush made a return to the pool at the ripe old age of twenty but seemed to believe he could fit into his speedos from his swimming days when he was sixteen.

Not so pretty to look at but once he got in the water it was evident that he still had some style about him taking out third place.

The oldies were in fantastic form as they competed in the over 30’s and over 40’s events.

Callan Kemp kicked off the oldies events taking out first place in the mens, while Kirby Jones and Kelly Gibbs took out first and second in the women’s 50m free.

Lindsay Williams, Jason Anderson and Wayne Miller showed they still had some pace with Lindsay setting an over 40’s record with a 30.96 seconds swim.

Callan Kemp and Kirby Jones were the star performers for the veteran events, but the highlight of the evening came from experienced swimmer Jan Giles, from Binalong, who was the only over 40’s swimmer to brave the 50m butterfly event and in the process set a new record.

Read our complete Shine Shield coverage here.

Angus Pack during the butterfly. PHOTO: Sherree Bush