Nine months after COVID left her high and dry, Amelia Simm is celebrating a medal-winning performance at the NSW Senior State Age Championships.
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The Tamworth City swimmer punctuated what has been a challenging year with bronze in both the 14-years girls 100m and 200m breaststroke.
The 14-year old's first medals at a state senior level, she said making the podium was really a bonus after swimming multiple nationals qualifying times and personal bests.
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"I think it was an add-on to the national's times and the pbs because I had to swim heats and then finals and it's quite hard to get a pb in both the heats and the finals," Simm said.
"So to get a pb, twice, a national's time and a medal along with that I was pretty stoked."
She did that in both breaststroke events, knocking a second off her previous best in the 100m and three seconds between just the heat and final of the 200m.
The most impressive thing about that was that it came at the end of what was a huge program after qualifying in six individual events, four of which she made the final in (she also made the final in the 200m and 400m individual medley). She was also part of six relays.
"I was pretty fatigued by the end of the week so I was very surprised," she said of the 200m final pb.
"In my head I was just last push, last push, last effort."
The fantastic results were not only a great reward for her hard work leading into the event (she was doing eight sessions a week, swimming four/five kilometres in the morning and around three in the afternoon) but also during the pandemic.
Admittedly not knowing "what to do with myself" with training suspended and the pools shut down, Simm did whatever she could to keep active.
She was fortunate to be able to use a neighbours pool and simulated swimming laps by tieing a rubber band around her waist and "just swimming until I couldn't". She also did a lot of yoga, and went for bike rides and runs with friends.
Her focus now turns to what will be her first nationals in April. She had qualified for this year's event but it was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Missing out on that is adding extra motivation, she said.
Simm was one of three Sharks to qualify for finals.
Alex Hayes made it through in the 15yrs girls 100m and 200m breaststroke and Ella Fittler the 14yrs girls 200m breaststroke.
Coach Nicolas Monet was overall really happy with the performance of the Tamworth City contingent with "a lot of pbs". He hadn't really been sure what to expect after the lockdown and then limited racing compared to normal.
