Blayney's Brandon Fraser has a new medal to hang with his collection, a silver medal that he won at the Swimming Australia National Open Championships in Adelaide.
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A former Blayney Dolphin member, Fraser competed in the 20/21 age group in the 200 metre and 800 metre freestyle events after first posting qualifying times for the 200 metre in November at the AIS in Canberra.
Then in February at Homebush he posted his 800 metre qualifying time at the NSW Country Championships.
It was in the 800 at Adelaide that saw Fraser able to stand on the podium and accept the silver medal for his efforts, even though they weren't his best times in the event.
"I was pretty shocked and pleased to see the result," he said. "With a time of 8:46 it was four seconds off my personal best in the 800."
Fraser said another highlight was meeting his peers.
"Being able to mingle with the very best swimmers in Australia as I trained and warmed up was fantastic," he said.
Fraser said that the 800 was his preferred style of race as he enjoyed the mind games that occur during the longer swims.
"In the 200 it's just a sprint, but in the 800 you have to hit that even pace throughout the race," he said.
In the 200 metre event he was ranked at number 16.
The difficulty in the 800, he said, is not to be distracted by the other swimmers surrounding you.
"When you start off it's easy but as you get to the middle of the set and you begin to fatigue it gets a bit hard to maintain the pace," he said.
"When you see them speeding up, it tempts me, and I have to think do I speed up with him or will I lose pace.
"You have to consider if it's me that's losing pace or is he speeding up?"
With the short course season beginning Fraser is tossing around his options.
"I have ten months until NSW Country Championships so I'll just see how we go after that," he said.
"Not sure if I'll go to state age or go to New Zealand for the national long course championships."
If not swimming, Fraser is contemplating adding two other athletic disciplines to his repertoire.
"I'm also thinking about doing a triathlon as my work load at Nestle is starting to take a bit of a toll on my training," he said.
"I can always swim in the pool and before or after work I can squeeze in a run or some bike training."
Although he knows he has the swimming side of a triathlon under control, open swimming is much different.
"I have done some open swimming and it's certainly a different style of swimming," he said.