Albany’s young record breaker

| posted on February 2, 2017

TWELVE-year-old swimmer Tom Gawned returned from the South Australian state championships this week with some extra luggage for the flight home.

Gawned competed in Adelaide to help qualify for the national championships in April and returned with a bag of 11 medals to add to his growing collection.

He won nine gold, one silver and one bronze from 14 events in an astonishing display of swimming that included the 200m and 400m individual medleys.

The Great Southern Grammar student spent much of the school holidays smashing WA country and state age records including the 50m backstroke that had stood for 25 years.

Upon returning to Albany just in time for the start of the school year, Gawned said he was looking forward to competing at the national championships and hoped he could swim at the Olympics “one day”.

He began swimming competitively when he was eight years old and has built up a demanding training regime with eight separate sessions six days per week.

Gawned said Kyle Chalmers was one of his main idols because of his gold medal performance at the Rio Olympics at such a young age.

With his naturally athletic build and size 11 boot, Gawned is already showing the hallmark signs of a champion swimmer.

He joins Caitlin Williams from the Albany Swim Club in qualifying for the national championships in Brisbane.