JOSIAH Wells arrived at Sydney’s Australian Age Swimming Championships to test himself against the best, only to discover he’s faster than the rest.
Josiah owned the pool in the 13 boys 100m and 50m freestyle events, shaving more than one second (in the 100m) and 0.7sec (in the 50m) off his PBs.
Rightly or wrongly it is sprinters who are most often labelled swimming’s rockstars. On that line of thinking Josiah’s performances suggest he could become the sport’s next Mick Jagger.
And if claiming a bagful of gold wasn’t enough for the Bay teenager he also took home bronze in the 100m butterfly and touched fifth in the 200m freestyle just to make sure.
Josiah’s coach, Hervey Bay Swim Club’s Paul Jones, said the times his charge clocked meant he was faster than many of Olympic ilk at the same age – or in fact that the times were so good they placed him in Australia’s all-time 13-year-olds top 10.
“His times in the 50 and 100 freestyle place him in the all-time top 10 for that age group,” Jones told the Chronicle.
“It’s the names that aren’t in there that you’d be looking at, so in the 50m and 100m freestyle he’s faster than Ian Thorpe and all those guys at the same age.
“Like in the 50m freestyle, there’s only been four people in history in that age in Australia that have swam faster than him. So he certainly has that in front of him if he chooses to go down that path.”
For his part Josiah is making no bold declarations as a rockstar likely would. Instead he’s saying he dreams of going to the Olympics but knows there’s many strokes remain between now and then.
His efforts crowned a remarkable national age event for the Fraser Coast with five kids making finals and others smashing records or seeding.
Results Hervey Bay Club: Tim Heffernan, U17-18, 7th 200m backstroke; Tim Duyst, U14, 5th 200m breaststroke; Teah Mackay, U15, 1st reserve 400m medelay final; Sophie Kluck, U14, improved rank; Luke Goodluck, U14, improved rank from 28 to 14 100m butterfly; Shaun Heffernan, U13, relay.
Results Fraser Coast Club: Luke Scott, U17-18, 4th 200m butterfly – fastest U17 in country; Cameron Preval, 9th in 200m butterfly