Uniforms were allocated, managers met and trip details finalised before the team assembled at the Sydney airport at 4.30am on Saturday and flew to Perth arriving at 9.15am.

The opening ceremony took place on Sunday September 13 at 8.30am where six State teams marched around the Challenge Stadium, with ACT leading NSW, QLD, SA, VIC and WA aound the pool deck. President of School Sport Australia Ken Rogers and WA School Sport President Murray Farr officially welcomed and opened the event and the captains for WA read the swimmers’ pledge.

Matthew competed in four events. They were 4x50 individual medley relay, 12 Years 50m freestyle, 4x50m freestyle relay and 9x50m IM relay. His results were:

12 yrs 50m freestyle: fourth in his heat, which placed him in the top eight finalists with a time of 29:02. In the finals he placed eighth with another presonal best time of 28:91. In the 4x50m relay Matthew finished third in his heat, and fourth overall. He was fourth overall in the 9x50m IM and in the 4x50m IM relay fifth in the heat and sixth overall.

These results make Matthew the second fastest 12 year old freestyle swimmer in NSW (by 0.01 second) and eighth fastest in Australia.

Many records were broken individually and in the relay events. It was a wonderful experience with lots of friendships made.

The meet concluded on Friday September 18 with the closing ceremony at 12.30pm. Matthew would like to thank all the people of Warren who have supported him to achieve his goal of competing at this high level of national competition. A big thank you to Wendy Stephens who continued to train him for this importat occasion.