Earlier in the year, I achieved a time that allowed me to qualify for the Open Water Swimming National Championships.

This month I was lucky enough to travel to the Sunshine Coast to compete in my age group for the 5km event. We arrived there on Friday and met up with two other boys, one from Aquinas, Jonah Whitby in Year 10, and another from my club.

Saturday we visited the course we were going to swim on for a training session and to watch other WA athlete competing in the 10km open events. These were for Olympic selection. Sunday was an early start at 5 am for race day.

We arrived at the course, checked in got numbered up. We then warmed up and we were ready for the race. Our race had approximately 50 boys in our age group. I finished up 3rd in my age group after a tough 5 km event in 29° water with a time of 1 hour and 8 minutes for Bronze. Jonah also swam a great race in tough conditions. We were so lucky to be able to travel and experience it together.