Westside Christ Church Aquatic

OUTSTANDING 2026 STATE SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR WESTSIDE! 💙🤍

A fantastic three days of racing from Westside Christ Church Aquatic at the 2026 Hancock Prospecting WA Age & Open Short Course Championships.

Our 44 swimmers produced an outstanding overall performance:

🏊 185 individual swims
⏱️ 141 Personal Bests
🔥 76% of all swims were PBs
🏅 37 individual Age & Open medals

🏆 MEDAL TALLY

🥇 19 Gold
🥈 11 Silver
🥉 7 Bronze

There were some exceptional individual performances and State Championship medals across the weekend.

⭐ Max Bailey led the way with six individual Age State titles, winning the Boys 13 yrs - 400 Free, 100 Free, 200 Fly, 100 Fly, 50 Back and 200 Free, as well as taking silver in the 50 Fly.

⭐ Lian Bewsher won the Women’s Open - 200 Free and 400 Free, as well as the 18 yrs & Over- titles in both events. Lian also won silver in the 18 yrs & Over -100 Free and bronze in the Open 100 Free.

⭐ George Galvin completed the Boys 16 yrs breaststroke double, winning both the 50 and 100 Breast, and added silver in the 100 IM.

⭐ Olive Hooper completed a backstroke double, winning the Girls 14 yrs -100 and 200 Back State titles.

⭐ Charlie Czaplinska won the Girls 17 yrs- 200 Back and 200 IM, together with silver in the 200 Free and 400 Free and also claimed Open silver in the 200 Back.

⭐ Leo Ghilardi won the Boys 17 yrs- 100 Fly State title and added silver in the 200 Fly.

⭐ Claudia McKay won the Girls 16yrs- 800 Free State title and added bronze in the 400 Free.

⭐ Raffaello Batacchi won the Boys 13yrs- 800 Free State title, together with silver in the 1500 Free and bronze in the 400 Free.

There were also a number of excellent minor-medal performances:

🥈 Thomas Dreverman — Men 18 yrs & Over 800 Free
🥉 Thomas Dreverman — Men 18 yrs & Over 1500 Free

🥈 Samuel Zollner — Men 18 yrs & Over 800 Free
🥉 Samuel Zollner — Men 18 yrs & Over 1500 Free

🥈 Mackenzie Miller — Girls 14 yrs 200 Breast
🥉 Mackenzie Miller — Girls 14 yrs 200 IM

🥉 Tatum Gething — Girls 14 yrs 200 Breast
🥉 Tatum Gething — Girls 14 yrs 50 Breast

🥉 Emma Patrick — Girls 15 yrs 800 Free

🥈 Camilla Selman — Girls 16 yrs 800 Free

🔥 BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCES

With 167 PBs, there were improvements right across the team, but several performances really stood out.

🔥 Raffaello Batacchi produced one of the breakthrough performances of the championships, recording huge PBs across every freestyle distance from 100m through to 1500m. Raffaello took more than 2 minutes off his 1500 Free, almost 52 seconds off his 800 Free, nearly 15 seconds off his 400 Free, 11 seconds off his 200 Free and more than 6 seconds off his 100 Free — while also becoming the Boys 13 800 Free State Champion.

🔥 Michelagniolo “Miche” Batacchi delivered an excellent championship across his distance freestyle program.

Miche dropped 14.21 seconds in the 800 Free, 13.84 seconds in the 1500 Free, 6.82 seconds in the 400 Free and another 1.78 seconds in the 200 Free — a combined improvement of more than 36 seconds across his four events.

🔥 Samuel Zollner had an outstanding distance meet, dropping 28.40 seconds in the 1500 Free, 19.63 seconds in the 800 Free and another 5.28 seconds in the 400 Free.

🔥 Max Bailey combined six State titles with major improvement, including more than 10 seconds off his 400 Free and over 3 seconds off his 100 Free to record 55.75.

🔥 Leo Ghilardi made another significant step forward in butterfly, dropping 2.52 seconds in the 100 Fly to break 58 seconds with 57.63, and 3.54 seconds in the 200 Fly to record 2:11.16.

While the medals are a fantastic achievement, the 141 PBs from swims are just as significant. More than six out of every ten Westside swims resulted in a personal best — a terrific reflection of the work the swimmers and coaches have put in.

Congratulations to every Westside swimmer who competed, whether you came home with a medal, achieved a PB, raced at this level for the first time or simply represented your club with pride.

A huge thank you as well to our coaches, parents, families and supporters.

An outstanding championship for Westside and plenty to be proud of.

💙🤍 Well done, Westside!

🏊 WESTSIDE JDS & JSS SWIMMING SKILLS WORKSHOP 🏊

Give your junior swimmer the chance to sharpen the skills that can make a big difference on race day!

Our Westside Senior Swimmers are running a special skills workshop for our juniors, focusing on:

🔹 Dives
🔹 Turns
🔹 Finishes
🔹 Relay changeovers

A great opportunity for our younger swimmers to learn from the seniors, build confidence and improve their racing skills.

Even better, all funds raised will go towards supporting our senior swimmers’ training trip to Singapore this October. 🇸🇬

📅 Saturday 5th September
⏰ 9:00am – 10:00am
💰 $25 per swimmer

Bookings are now open through the Online Store in the Stack App.

Come along, improve your skills and help support our Westside seniors! 💙🏊

Good luck to all our Age and Open swimmers competing at the WA State Championships next weekend!

A great opportunity to put all the hard work and training into racing. Enjoy the weekend, race hard and have fun.

Good luck to everyone competing and congratulations on qualifying! 👏

Westside Swimming
📍 CCGS & MLC Aquatic Precinct, Claremont

A fantastic performance from Charlie at the 2026 Australian Pool Rescue Championships in Adelaide, representing Cottesloe and the WA Western Suns state team.

Charlie came away from the championships with an outstanding seven medals, including three Australian titles:

🥇 Australian Champion – 200m Obstacle Race – 2:15.29
🥇 U17/19 Women’s 4x50m Obstacle Relay – 1:57.52
🥇 U17/19 Women’s 4x50m Medley Relay – 1:49.15
🥈 50m Swim with Fins – 19.44
🥈 100m Manikin Tow with Fins – 1:03.63
🥈 U17/19 Women’s 4x25m Manikin Relay – 1:32.76
🥉 100m Manikin Carry with Fins – 1:00.99

Charlie’s 19.44 in the 50m Swim with Fins was just 0.01 seconds away from another Australian title.

Congratulations Charlie! 👏🥇🥇🥇🥈🥈🥈🥉

Congratulations Lucy!

Good luck to Charlie at the 2026 Australian Pool Rescue Championships!

This weekend, Charlie heads to the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre to compete in one of Australia’s premier lifesaving events.

The Australian Pool Rescue Championships bring together the nation’s most skilled lifesavers to showcase the speed, strength and rescue skills that keep our beaches and pools safe. The championships are also a key selection event for Australia’s national lifesaving teams, with athletes competing for the opportunity to represent their country on the international stage.

Beyond the medals, the event highlights the outstanding rescue skills and preparedness of Australia’s elite lifesavers as they gear up for the upcoming patrol season.

📍 2026 Australian Pool Rescue Championships
🗓️ 7–9 August 2026
📌 South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre, Adelaide

Everyone at Westside Christ Church Aquatic wishes Charlie the very best. We hope you have a fantastic championship, enjoy the experience, and race with confidence. We’re all behind you!

Congratulations Byron Kimber – Pan Pacific Championships Debut!

Everyone at Westside is incredibly proud to congratulate Byron Kimber on his selection to represent South Africa at the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships, with the open water events taking place in Long Beach, California, on 10 August 2026.

Byron earned the right to wear the South African colours through his outstanding performances at the South African Open Water National Championships earlier this year, securing his place on the national team for one of the world's premier open water competitions.

The Pan Pacific Championships bring together many of the world's strongest open water nations, with athletes from the traditional charter nations of Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States joined by invited European nations, creating one of the deepest international fields outside of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Making his senior Pan Pacific debut is a significant milestone and recognition of Byron's commitment, resilience and hard work over many years.

Everyone at Westside wishes Byron every success as he prepares to race against the world's best in California. We know you'll represent South Africa with pride.

Good luck, Byron—we'll all be cheering you on from home!

Competition- 10th August at Long Beach California

Men’s 10 km 1:00 am WST (11th August)

📺 Watch the Pan Pacs pool action LIVE on 9Now. Check your local guides for specific channels and times.

Stream the open water action on the USA Swimming YouTube channel.

She did it! 🇦🇺🏊‍♀️🌊

A huge congratulations to Josie on successfully completing the English Channel crossing!

⏱️ total distance swum 50 km in 9 hours 54 minutes

Josie’s time makes her the seventh Australian woman to complete the solo English Channel crossing in under 10 hours, joining legends of Australian marathon swimming including Linda McGill, Shelley Taylor-Smith, Susie Maroney, Tammy van Wisse, Tamara Bruce and Chloë McCardel.

Swimming the English Channel is one of the world’s most iconic open water challenges. Nearly 10 hours in cold water, dealing with tides, currents, shipping traffic and constantly changing conditions demands exceptional physical preparation, mental toughness and determination.

Everyone at Westside is incredibly proud of what you’ve achieved. This has been months of hard work, consistency and commitment, and today it all came together.

Congratulations, Josie. What an incredible achievement. Enjoy every moment—you’ve earned it! 🇦🇺💙

Josie’s English Channel swim started at 2:45 am UK time (9:45 am Perth time) this morning.

Josie’s pilot boat is the Viking Princess ll (Kevin Peters & Ray Brickell).

Here’s the link if you'd like to follow Josie's crossing path.

https://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/pilots/viking-princess-ii

Just over 20 km into the crossing and Josie has passed the five other boats that left 90 min before her departure.

Go Josie!

On Thursday, Josie hopes to take on one of the greatest challenges in endurance sport — the English Channel.

Stretching between England and France, the Channel is one of the world's most iconic open water swims. While the straight-line distance is around 34 km, powerful tides and currents often mean swimmers can cover more before reaching the French coast. Add water temperatures of just 15–18°C, busy international shipping lanes and the unpredictability of the sea, and it's easy to understand why the English Channel is regarded as one of the toughest marathon swims on the planet.

For Josie, this swim represents far more than a single day in the water. It reflects months of dedication, countless kilometres of training, early mornings, long sessions, resilience and an unwavering commitment to her goal.

Good luck, Josie. We're all behind you.