“I’ve got the Midas touch, everything I touch it turns to gold”.
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No one’s suggesting Midnight Star were genuinely telling the future with their banger Midas Touch, but after her effort in the University of Adelaide pool on Tuesday and Wednesday the 1986 tune may as well refer to Orange’s Emily Nobbs.
The 16-year-old Kinross Swim Club, and formerly Jets, star-in-waiting flat out dominated, speeding to two gold medals in her 100 and 200-metre breaststroke events.
Nobbs qualified for the 100m final in the fastest time, clocking 1.14.79 to just edge out South Australia’s Alison Munday (1.14.96), who eventually finished just outside the medals.
She turned it on in Tuesday night’s final though, shaving more than two seconds off her qualifying time to clock 1.12.47 and claim gold by a tick under two seconds from Victoria’s Reidel Smith (1.14.24).
The 200m final on Wednesday night was a similar story.
Nobbs entered as the favourite with best seeding time of 2.42.71, and promptly shaved six seconds off that to touch the wall in 2.36.52. That was more than two second quicker than silver medalist Madeline Snell, from Queensland, who finished in 2.38.57.
That 200m time would’ve been good enough for an 11th finish at this year’s open national championships.
Nobbs’ Kinross and NSW teammate Ollie McLaughlin also secured a medal last week, picking up bronze in his 13-14 years backstroke event.
McLaughlin was the third-fastest in the prelims, clocking 1.02.93, and finished there in the final as well, a 1.02.09.
He was a little under a second behind the eventual winner Tanmay Das, who’d come all the way from India to compete.
Kinross’ Ethan Crisp also scored a couple of top 10 results.