WAGGA Swim Club coach Gennadiy Labara will weigh up whether Jamie Mooney will contest the national open championships for a second straight or focus on the age championships after he bagged two state titles in Sydney this week.
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A freestyle specialist, Mooney shaved a massive 12 seconds off his previous best in the 400m individual medley to claim gold with a time of 4:34.37 on Saturday, using the back end of the freestyle leg to finish over the top of Loreto Thomas swimmer Callum Thomas (4:36.17).
Thomas used his breaststroke prowess to build a big early lead, but Mooney's freestyle burst proved too strong to hold off.
Mooney also won gold in the 200m freestyle earlier in the carnival at Sydney's Olympic Aquatic Centre in a personal best time of 1:52.62.
He capped it off with bronze medals in the 100m breaststroke and 50m freestyle, and still has his pet event the 100m freestyle to come later in the meet.
Mooney gained valuable experience racing the 100m freestyle at this year's Olympic trials, and whether he does so again or sticks with his own age group at Adelaide in April is a decision his camp will mull over.
The goal is to have Mooney as best prepared as possible to have a tilt at making the Olympics at Paris in 2024.
"We'll race his age group (in Adelaide), and we'll decide about the opens," Labara said.
"We will decide after this competition what we do with open.
"Our plan is for 2024, so we have to years to gradually improve and build that momentum."
Mooney has given up playing Australian Rules to focus purely on swimming, and the results are speaking for themselves.
"Two years ago we weren't going to do medleys but now he's NSW champion, it's an amazing effort," Labara said.
"It (400m individual medley final) went exactly to plan. For us it's not surprise because it's about hard work, and this is the reward."
"He performed very well and I'm very proud and pleased, not just with Jamie but all our swimmers. We have a lot of swimmers in finals or improving their times.
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"If you work hard and train hard, you can win medals."
Mooney was due to compete in the 200m individual medley final on Sunday night, while Wagga clubmates Kade Knight, Chloe Donelan and Isaac Mooney also qualified for finals in the morning heats.
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