Meet report from Caroline Makin
A single Viking, Caroline Makin headed up to Sydney for the day on Saturday 6 December to take part in the Wests Auburn BPS Meet. This was her second ever outdoor swim meet — the first time was when she competed in an outdoor pool in Germany when she was 14 years old. Swimming as a teenager in a cold UK meant no outdoor pools!
This was a Long Course meet, so Caroline chose to stick to all freestyle events, as Backstroke in an outdoor 50m pool just proved too much of a daunting prospect! The shallow end of the pool was very shallow, with no diving allowed and only just deep enough for tumble turns.
In her first race, the 400m Freestyle, Caroline went out fast, and then found her pace; coming home in a fairly pleasing time, considering it was her first competition attempt at this distance. Caroline achieved times that were just 0.2 seconds and slower than her PBs for 100m Freestyle and 50m Freestyle at the LC Championships a month earlier.
Caroline achieved 30 points for the club and was happy with her performance, given the shallowness and her little experience of swimming in an outdoor pool.
It was a very rainy outlook for the day but the sun shone throughout most of the meet, then 15 minutes after the last event, the heavens opened, and the rain poured down. The drive back to Canberra was a very wet one.
