Rylee’s open water double

Redcliffe Leagues swimmer Rylee Smith has enjoyed success at the Queensland and Brisbane Open Water Championships in recent weeks, winning events at both for her age group for the second year in a row.

Smith (14 years) swam the 5km Open Water event at the championships on October 14 and became Queensland Champion in a time of 1:03:31.69, backing up her win in 2022.

She led the pack by 15m after the first buoy and extended her lead to win the event by just under a minute (57 seconds) on her nearest competitor.

Smith finished in ninth place in the open ages category for 5km at the same competition.

She competed in the Brisbane Open Water Championships on September 2 at Coolum, becoming Brisbane Champion for the second year running and finishing second in the open category at the event.

Rylee is part of the Queensland Swimming Youth Development Open Water team and has been selected in the Queensland Open Water team to compete in Western Australia from November 22-26.

It follows success at the Australian Age Championships in April, where she had a podium finish and personal best times in all seven races she contested.

The North Lakes resident has trained at Redcliffe Leagues since she was nine and is in the Swimming Queensland Talent Identification program and Bronze Development Squad.

Her coach Wanda Drew was named Emerging Age Group Coach at the recent Queensland Swimming Awards.