Meet report from Ian Hampton
We had a great team of 12 swimmers entered in 59 individual events and six relays at the NSW State Long Course Championships over the weekend of 23/24 October at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
As a club we:
- won the Division 2 State Cup as the top point scoring club in the division;
- came third in the Biddy Hall Memorial Trophy for points scored per swimmer – ahead of Seaside Pirates!
- competed in six relays and all relay teams did well, with achievements as follows:
- 2nd place in the Womens 200+ Medley relay (Cecelia Kaye, Pam Munday, Anne Smyth and Ann Reid);
- 3rd place in the Womens 120+ Medley relay (Atsuko McGowan, Tania Arnold, Annette Britten and Caroline Makin) with a very exciting finish in the Freestyle leg with Caroline chasing the Seaside Pirates’ swimmer all the way down the last leg to be pipped at the finish by just 0.4s;
- 3rd place in the Mixed 120+ Medley relay (Atsuko McGowan, Luke McGowan, David Bale and Caroline Makin);
- two 4th places and one 5th place in three Freestyle relays;
- plenty of good relay legs including fine butterfly legs by David, Anne and Annette. Three of our “girls” each did three relay swims over the weekend and their hard work is greatly appreciated … thanks!
Relays are the key to doing well in the Championship competitions – we need that (minimum) fourth bloke to come to the next championship meet … so, here’s hoping 🙂
Vikings Team NSW LC Champs Oct 2010
Overall, some pretty good individual accomplishments, with some notable outstanding individual performances including:
First time competitor Luke McGowan contested five individual events and swam terrifically well all weekend. Luke’s individual results in his 35-39 age group included 2nd in the 200m Breaststroke, 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke (in a very quick 36.43s), 3rd in the 50m Freestyle (in a fast 30.06s), 2nd in the 100m Breaststroke and 2nd in the 50m Backstroke. Luke finished 3rd in his individual point score overall in his age group.
Tania Arnold and Anne Smyth also finished 3rd in their respective age group individual point score competitions.
Lots of personal best achievements across the board, specifically from David Bale, Pam Munday, Atsuko McGowan, Brenda Day and Caroline Makin.
A quick scan through our result times on the Masters Swimming NSW website compared to previous swims shows there is definitely a big difference between short course and long course competition swimming (especially at this time of year) …. as a Club, we need to think again about doing at least some of our training in a long course pool.
On the Saturday evening we enjoyed a nice meal opposite the railway station at Homebush in a friendly Thai place, still serving food after a late finish to the afternoon’s swimming. Homebush Bay was a madhouse on Saturday night because of the staging of the Ben Hur event.
