SWIMMING sensation Wally Eggleton once again proved his position as one of the leading young swimmers in the State when he cleaned up an astonishing eight gold medals at the NSW Age Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre earlier this month.
South Windsor star Eggleton, 16, blitzed his rivals at State level once again, with the highlight being his landmark time in his pet event, the 1500m freestyle, where he broke the 16 minute barrier for the first time with a swim of 15:46.44 - a personal best of 22 seconds.
He finished more than 16 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, a Canadian visitor, and was 26 seconds clear of the next NSW competitor.
Eggleton also scooped the 400m and 200m freestyle to complete treble of the longer distance races, and took the 200m and 400m individual medley double.
All five individual wins came in personal best time for the former Wizards champ, who now competes for Blacktown City, with his 400m freestyle time also being a breakthrough time at 3:59.11, the first time he has been under four minutes.
He clocked 1:53.96 to claim the 200m, 4:38.03 in the 400m IM and 2:12.04 in the 200m IM.
"It was probably one of the best meets I have ever had," Eggleton said.
"To come away with eight gold medals was great, it's the most I've got at a State meet by far.
"The highlight was the 1500m on the last night, breaking the 16 minute mark was a good way to finish ? I've been trying to get into the 15s for about a year.
"When I looked up and saw the time I was a bit surprised but happy at the same time to get under - I didn't think I'd be able to get under by that much, I thought I might have done a 15:55.
"I've been trying to break the four minutes in the 400m for a while as well and having the Canadian swimmers there helped me do that - I knew I had to go under to beat them so they pushed me to get under."
Eggleton also anchored Blacktown City to victory in the 16&U 4x100m medley relay with Shane Grant, Brendan Micallef and Michael Fell, swam third in the 16&U 4x100m freestyle relay win with former Windsor Swim Club member Jackson Mulherin, Micallef and Fell and also led off the 18&U 4x200m freestyle relay triumph ahead of Zach Hansford, fellow ex-Wizard Nathan Grant and Fell.
Eggleton was also in the bronze medal winning 18&U 4x100m med- ley relay, 18&U 4x100m freestyle relay, finished fourth in NSW in the 100m freestyle and 14th in the 50m freestyle.
Three of his gold medal swims did come after he touched the wall in minor placings ? a Filipino swimmer finished ahead of him in the 200m freestyle, while two Can- adians beat him in the 200m IM and three in the 400m IM, with those international competitors being ineligible for State titles.
Eggleton has qualified for six ind- ividual events at April's national championships at SOPAC (the 100m freestyle is the other), but he will wait until he sees the schedule before deciding whether to tackle them all or pick and choose a program to best suit him.
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