australiam paralympic youth game

australian paralympic youth games

In early October this year the Australian Paralympic Youth Games were held in Melbourne.

The SSPA were represented by two swimmers in Samantha Lilly from Victoria and Reagan Wickens from New South Wales.

After Samantha’s dominate performance at the World Dwarf Games in Northern Ireland, she continued to perform well in front of her home crowd at these Games; her results were as follows;

Open Mixed 50m Butterfly – Silver
Open Women’s 100m Freestyle – 5th
Open Women’s 50m Backstroke – 4th
Open Women’s 50m freestyle – 5th

Reagan Wicken’s is the current Australian 100m breaststroke record holder for his classification. His youth games results were as follows;

Boys 14 & Under 100m Freestyle – Silver
Boys 14 & Under 100m Backstroke – Silver
Boys 14 & Under 100m Breaststroke – Silver
Boys 14 & Under 50m Freestyle – Bronze
Boys 14 & Under 50m Breast – Bronze
Boys 14 & Under 50m Backstroke – 4th

After this colossal performance from Regan he competed in the NSW Disability Swimming State Championships later that month. Where he won 5 gold medals and had the honour of receiving the "Beverley Whitfield Trophy" which is awarded by New South Wales swimming to an individual who shows sportsmanship, dedication and outstanding swimming results.

Reagan writes..... “Hi my name is Reagan Wickens I am 14 years old and I was selected in the NSW Team to compete in swimming at the Australian Paralympic Youth Games in Melbourne on the 5th - 10th of October. I had a great time and met a lot of new friends. I marched in the Open Ceremony and after the closing ceremony all the athletes stayed on for the after party. All the athletes stayed in the Athletes Village so we got to meet people from all over Australia, New Zealand, America and Papua New Guinea. We supported all the athletes from other sports besides swimming and got to watch wheelchair basketball and table tennis. I won three silver and two bronze medals in swimming. The Games will be held again in two years time and hopefully I will be selected again”..........

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