Jodan Grant will represent the Wimmera in the inter-districts being held in Melbourne tomorrow.
ARARAT - Ten year old Jodan Grant has been making a splash in just his first full season with the Ararat Swimming Club.
Jodan has been selected to represent the Wimmera in the inter-districts being held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre tomorrow.
Jodan's mother Janelle Murley said he first joined the Ararat swimming club for the 2011/2012 season, but that was marred by sickness and injury.
"Jodan had to have a toe operation after about three or four weeks of that season and that kept him out for the rest of it," she said.
"On top of recovering from the surgery he also had tonsillitis so this current season is pretty much his first season at it."
Jodan has competed at swimming carnivals in Horsham, Donald, Stawell and the Ararat one which was held at Stawell.
Across the carnivals Jordan finished first in the backstroke heats and received a trophy for coming third overall.
He said improving his time from carnival to carnival has been an important goal.
"I just really want to improve my time and get better and faster at my backstroke," he said.
"I think how well I do comes down to how well I kick my legs."
"It is really good to see how much enjoyment he gets out of the swimming and how well he is doing," Mrs Murley said.
Jodan said there are several things he needs to work towards ahead of a race.
"I'm a good diver, but we don't get much of an opportunity to do that depending on the depth of water of the pools we are swimming in," he said.
He said taking part in the Ararat carnival at Stawell was different with the outdoor pool only 25 metres in length.
"Because we swim 50 metres we had to touch the wall or do a tumble turn and swim back," he said.
"I haven't had much practice with these so I am not to confident, but it is still good practice."
Mrs Murley said one of Jodan's keys to swimming well and staying healthy is eating bananas to give him greater energy.
He most recently competed in St Arnaud where he did well in the freestyle events, swimming some better times.
Jodan said he takes part in the sport because he just really likes swimming.
"Most of the people I swim with enjoy Freestyle but I like it all," he said.
"I like working in a team in the relays and trying to beat my times from race to race."
Jodan has so far cut at least ten seconds off his 50 metre backstroke time.
"He was over a minute at the start of the season and now he is around 50 seconds," Mrs Murley said.
Jodan said competing in Melbourne will be a good experience and that he feels lucky to have been selected.
"I'm excited to be going to swim in Melbourne at the aquatic centre with people from across Victoria," he said.
Jodan will represent the Wimmera at the inter-districts tomorrow in at least the freestyle relay and medley relay.
