Open Water star Vaggelis Tsirapidis has added to his vast array of medals this week, after winning the Victorian Open water championship on the weekend.

The 19-year-old Greek national has been blitzing his personal bests and setting new records as he prepares for the Australian Open and Age Open Water Championships in Perth early next year.

Swimming against people older and more experienced than he is, Vaggelis has been able to keep his results consistent, and swam 10 km in a solid two hours and seven minutes. He was just seconds ahead of second-placed Thomas Woods, but says the win is an important step to achieving his goal of becoming national champion.

He will fly to the Sunshine Coast next week to compete in the Queensland state championship, then in December he’ll take on the NSW state championship, all in preparation for Perth’s national championship.

His win on the weekend is a testament to his training regimen.

“It was a good race, my aim from the beginning was to win and nothing else. And I got that so I’m pretty happy,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

Juggling his studies and his part-time job, Vaggelis has been able to keep up his training and keep racing. It’s a testament to his nature.

Migrating from Greece early this year, his goal is to get noticed by the swimming elite and make it into the Australian national team.
Racing in Queensland will be a chance to race many of those already in the team.

“It’s a very good race, because all of the swimmers that race for the Australian team, they’re actually from Queensland,” he says.

“It’ll be like a small Australian championship.”

Hoping to place in the top ten, Vaggelis is ready for the challenge.

With his personal best time under two hours, and with a naturally competitive nature, Vaggelis has set himself up well for the race. “Every time I get into the pool I’m willing to give more than 100 per cent of myself,” he says.

“I’m trying a lot in training, I had really good results for the previous three weeks.”

He’s currently swimming at Surrey Park Swimming Club, with Kevin Blum as coach, and has a part-time job teaching swimming.