Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 56

Sport
MANY NOTABLE
SWIMMING
PERFORMANCES
This year four Scotch boys broke an APS record in the under 16
4x50m butterfly, the first such record for Scotch since 2014. The four
boys – Toby McOmish, Dominic Tsui, Justin Tan (all Year 9) and Max
Boesley (Year 10) – swam a time of 1:44.67 seconds, taking almost a
full second off the old record.
Dominic Tsui also broke a Scotch 50 metres butterfly record which
had been held by Ed Roche (‘97) since 1994. Although Ed went on
to represent Australia after he finished at Scotch, Dominic can’t quite
follow the same pathway as he is a Hong Kong national, but we still
hope to see him racing on the international stage one day, too.
The end of the APS swimming season didn’t necessarily mean
swimming stopped for all of the boys. Thomas Hay (Year 11), Dominic
Tsui, Max Boesley and Toby McOmish trained on to race at the
Australian Age Swimming Championships, held in Adelaide in April.
Dominic made several finals and Thomas came away with a silver
medal in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay.
Thomas Hay’s brother, Harry (Year 8) preferred the rougher waters
of the Pacific Ocean and swam at the Australian Surf Lifesaving
Championships, where he made the final of the under 14 surf race.
This is the first year since 2011 that a Negri brother hasn’t raced
in the APS finals for Scotch, but a Negri can still find his way into a
Scotch swimming story. Benno Negri (‘16) swam exceptionally well
at the 2019 Australian Championships, also held in Adelaide in April,
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Great Scot Number 157 – September 2019
ABOVE LEFT: DOMINIC TSUI (YEAR 9); ABOVE: BENNO NEGRI (’16)
winning a gold medal in the 20-21 age group of the men’s 100m
freestyle, posting a personal best of 49.57 seconds. Then in the open
final of the men’s 200m freestyle, Benno finished sixth in an event won
by Rio Olympic gold medallist, Kyle Chalmers.
These two swims saw Benno selected in the Australian team for
the World University Games in Italy. Held every two years, events in
the games are typically close and hard-fought, with many Olympians
competing in recent years. Benno started the meet with a very good
swim in the 4x100m freestyle, and then unfortunately fell ill and missed
the rest of the meet. Hopefully we will see Benno’s name listed for a
major Australian swimming team next year!
RYAN NOLAN – TIC, SWIMMING