Two Bega swimmers are off to state titles later this month after dominating in the pool at Queanbeyan.
Henry Philipzen, 7, and Lily Salway, 13 both secured qualifying swims in the 50m freestyle to represent the area at the State Titles, which will run in Homebush on March 22.
Swimming coach Zoe Philipzen said she was proud of both, but confessed it was rewarding to see her own son making the grade.
"I've been at the pool teaching kids for 20 years so it is nice I finally get to coach my own," Zoe beamed.
Zoe and her husband Mark are both swim coaches at the Bega Pool, but Zoe said Henry didn't get any special attention and just did the lessons along with the other kids.
"We're just so proud of the kids, we're here seven days a week and there are kids who are up at 5.30 in the morning to swim and you see them come in again on the weekend, they love it."
Zoe said it was terrific to see swimmers from the Bega Valley competing well with events regularly dominated by city-based swimmers.
"The metro kids dominate because they can train all year round with indoor pools - they're only training here six months of the year and because of COVID-19 we lost a lot of local carnivals."
However, time trials as part of weekly swim lessons help the kids practice for competition swims.
Zoe said Henry and Lily had gone through their school carnival, then zone events and continued up the line to now secure their spot at the state level.
She said the Bega Amateur Swimming Club were proud of both for their success and said swimming was a skill for life.
She said with solar heating the pool was always warm and there were no excuses to not teaching kids how to swim and interact in the water.
"It's up to parents to get their kids taught, the water is warm and if you can do that for your kids they have a life skill forever."
