A trio of Viking ladies left Canberra early on the morning of Saturday 3 December 2011 to compete at the Wests Auburn Long Distance Meet.
With Suzie Gunning at the driving wheel, the trio of Suzie, Pam Munday and Caroline Makin had not only a lot of metres of swimming ahead of them, but also a lot of Kilometres of driving for the day trip to Sydney.
The sun was shining for this long distance meet in the 50m outdoor pool at Auburn, and the ladies were ready to put in the laps in the crystal clear water.
First off the blocks was Caroline in her first ever attempt at a 1500m Freestyle race, finishing in 3rd place behind two of the top ranked freestyle swimmers in her age group, and setting a new club record in the process.
Next up, Suzie took on the 400m Freestyle event and came home gallant in 1st place in her age group.
The 400m Breaststroke event saw Pam and Caroline swimming in the same heat in lanes next to each other! Caroline took off in her usual ‘sprinting’ fashion over the first 100m. Caroline touched just ahead of Pam at the 200m mark, and then Pam showed her aerobic power and experience and her excellent pacing skills over the second half of the race, pulling ahead at the 250m and pushing on hard to finish 6 seconds ahead of Caroline. Pam placed 1st in her age group, setting a club record and a NSW state record. Caroline also finished 1st and set a new club record in her age group.
Suzie followed up her 400m freestyle swim with an 800m Freestyle, again finishing in 1st place – a double freestyle first place header for Suzie!
Finally, Pam finished the day off with another 1st place, club record and NSW state record in the 800m Breaststroke. Congrats to Pam on two more well-deserved NSW state records to add to her collection.
The triumphant trio headed back to Canberra tired from racing 4,300m between them in one day!
Full results available.
