SCHOFIELDS swimmer Owen Hainsworth took home a swag of medals at the
Hainsworth attends The Ponds High School, which finished sixth in the region at the Sydney West Swimming Championships.
It’s an incredible achievement for the school that opened in 2015 and currently caters for year 7, 8 and 9 students, as it adds a new grade each year.
Ben Harris and Owen Hainsworth both took home a swag of medals, becoming age champions in under-12 boys and under-14 boys categories in the process.
Head teacher of PE Andrew Fitzgerald said he was ecstatic at the level the school had achieved in such a short time.
“When we started the school, one of the targets for the principal was that we build a sporting culture and a winning sporting culture would obviously help that,” he said.
“We’re building well as we wanted to do.”
The school split nine individual gold medals between Owen (four gold, one silver) and Ben (five gold, one silver), while Taylor Clayton (one silver, one bronze) and Cooper Virgo (three bronze) also claimed medals.
However, Owen pointed to medals in the relay events with gold in the under-13s, silver in under-12s and bronze in under-14s all qualifying for the Combine High Schools Swimming Championships as a sign of the school’s success.
“I was pretty happy with my individual results but I was happier with our team building that culture of moving forward into making CHS for all three relays,” he said.
“It will help develop a good name for the school.”
It will be a busy time for Owen with nationals for his club a few weeks after the CHS championships.
The Schofields resident swims for the Windsor Swim Club and said his main focus would be on nationals but that he’d give his all at CHS.
“I’ll actually be training pretty hard up to CHS and then I’ll try and do my best and make finals,” he said.
“Hopefully I can win or place in the finals so I can go on to all-schools.”
It will be a busy few years for Owen with his sights set on Commonwealth Games trials in 2018 before World Championship trials and Olympic selection opportunities in 2019 and 2020.
The NSW CHS Swimming Championships will be held from April 2 to 4 at the Sydney Aquatic Centre.
Andrew McMurtry
Andrew McMurtry is the North West Sydney Fairfax sports reporter, covering the Blacktown Sun, Hills News, Parramatta Sun, Rouse Hill Courier and St Marys-Mount Druitt Star.
Andrew McMurtry is the North West Sydney Fairfax sports reporter, covering the Blacktown Sun, Hills News, Parramatta Sun, Rouse Hill Courier and St Marys-Mount Druitt Star.
