Maccabi swimmers excel in racing return
MACCABI NSW swimmers scooped up 16 medals to place 11th overall out of 21 participating clubs at the 2020 Metro South East Area Senior Swimming Championships, held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
In an impressive, and thoroughly enjoyable, return to competitive racing after a seven-month gap due to COVID-19 restrictions, Maccabi NSW Swimming Club president Anthony Goodridge said, “It is fair to say that everyone has learned the art of patience in 2020 and, for the Maccabi team, fast times, massive PBs and great morale were enough reward for the hard work put in since training resumed in early June.”
Sam Garvin, 14, was the lone gold medallist for Maccabi. He stormed to victory in the 100m butterfly, chopping 2.5 seconds from his previous best time in the process. Garvin also won silver medals in the 14 boys’ 50m and 200m butterfly.
Other Maccabi medallists were: 16-year-old Jess Williams (3 silver, 1 bronze); 16-year-old Ben Potash (1 silver, 2 bronzes); 14-year-old Savanna Goldring (2 silvers); 14-year-old Joe Hewins (2 bronzes); 16-year-old Hannah Pajor (1 bronze); and 15-year-old Tamryn Schubert (1 bronze).
There were many close calls for medals too, with Maccabi swimmers only a fingernail away from top three placings, although Ella Leshetz, 13, will be glad her fingers were just long enough in the 50m freestyle to qualify for the state championships for the first time, touching the wall in 30.46 seconds to beat the cut-off time by just 0.04 seconds.
Many Maccabi swimmers posted at least one PB time at the meet. Some of the biggest individual improvers among those were Sam Kaplan, Yoni Levy, Elodie Jewell and Jenna Marks, while Noah Abeshouse, Elijah Raif and Lily Ilsar chipped away at their best times all weekend.
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