Blake produced a national championships qualifying time in the final of the 15 years 50m freestyle at this week’s state titles in Melbourne.

His time of 25.45 seconds was 0.93 seconds quicker than his previous personal best. He finished eighth in the 10-swimmer final —  the best result by the Warrnambool Swimming Club’s 22 members, who contested the championships.

“I was really, really happy,” Blake said. “I just thought I might as well have a good crack at it.”

Blake said his preparation had been good.

“I’ve been training pretty hard, six sessions a week.”

He experienced both the highs and lows of swimming. After beating the 100m freestyle national qualifying mark by 0.3 of a second in a relay, an issue with timing touch pad prevented it from being an official mark, meaning he has to reproduce the swim at another meeting.

Blake’s aim is to qualify for both the 50m and 100m freestyle events at April’s nationals in Sydney. His  next competition will be January’s country championships in Geelong.

Warrnambool Swimming Club head coach Jayson Lamb said Jason Pritchard also made a final. He was 10th in the 15 years 100m backstroke.

“They were the two stand-outs as far as making finals went,” Lamb said. “Everyone swum exceptionally well.  The majority were doing big personal best times.” He said 17-year-olds Jamin Baulch and Billy McPhee sliced two seconds off their bests in the 100m freestyle, posting 56.0 and 56.9 times. Jane Fenton smashed her previous best by four seconds in the 12 years 100m backstroke.

“Thomas Buckley, everytime he stepped into the pool, he did two to three-second PBs.”