Report by Ian Hampton & David Bale
Fifteen Vikings trekked to Sydney for the NSW Long Course Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre over the weekend 17/18 March 2012. The team comprised of seven women and eight men, a ratio not often seen at Sydney meets by our club! Well done to those who put their hand up for a great meet effort.
There were some fantastic results with most people putting in at least one personal best time. The individual results in age groups were: Atsuko McGowan 2nd, Pam Munday 2nd, Caroline Makin equal 2nd, Ian Hampton equal 2nd, David Bale 3rd, Opal Eddy 3rd, Luke McGowan 5th, Annette Britten 7th, Ann Reid 7th, Mark Raymond 8th, Kristen Leydon 9th, Greg Gourley 11th, Andreas Falkenau 12th, Richard Flockart 12th, Roger Dietrich 13th.
At this championship meet we placed 7th of the 37 clubs competing, which was clearly won by the Warringah Club; and 8th in the average points per swimmer. This was a good result considering our relatively small number of competitors.
The individual performances listed below are indicative:
Atsuko — five individual swims including three “Rolls Royce” Backstroke swims for three wins, with possibly her 50m in 36.73 being the best.
Caroline — five individual swims and steadily improving at Breaststroke with a good 44.68 for 50m and first place and a very solid 3:09.64 for 200m IM taking a long standing club record and 3rd place.
Annette — was not fully fit but soldiered on with four individual swims, including 1:38.22 for 100m Backstroke.
Kristen — three individual swims including a solid 50m Freestyle perfomance in 39.26.
Ann — five individual swims and the usual iron woman effort including 100m and 200m Butterfly, 100m and 200m Freestyle which was a wonderfully consistent swim in 2:59.65.
Pam — five individual swims with four wins and one 3rd place – Pam’s best was her 200m Butterfly in 3:41.17 (657 FINA points — putting her in number one spot in the National rankings for 2012).
Opal — five individual swims including 200m backstroke in 6:49 for 2nd place.
David — five individual swims and and iron man performance including 50, 100 and 200m Butterfly — possibly David’s best swim was 1:10.46 for 100m Freestyle.
Luke – can’t pip Atsuko at backstroke but his 50m breaststroke in 36.62 for 3rd place was a standout amongst his five individual swims.
Mark – put in three really good individual swims including 100m Freestyle in 1:05.38 and 100m Breaststroke in 1:26.98 for 3rd place.
Andreas came for one day and put in three good individual swims including 50m Breaststroke in 42.20 and 50m Backstroke in 38.47.
Roger put in five good individual swims including 200m Freestyle in 3:25.30.
Greg – four solid individual swims including 3:07.57 for 200m Backstroke for 3rd place.
Richard — four individual swims including a good 100m Butterfly in 1:25.20 for 1st place.
Ian — five individual swims including a solid swim time of 3:21.06 for 200m IM for 2nd place.
We entered as many four 4 x 50m relays as possible with some success including the following:
- Best relay was our men’s 160+ 4 x 50m relay who won gold with 2.01.60. Well done Luke, David, Andreas and Mark.
- Women’s 160+ freestyle team — Caroline, Ann, Pam and Atsuko 2nd place in 2:24.05.
- Mixed 160+ freestyle team — David, Kristen, Ann and Mark scored 2nd place in 2:17.04.
- Mixed 200+ freestyle team — Atsuko, Roger, Pam and Greg scored 3rd place in 2:22.96.
- Mixed 200+ medley team — Atsuko, Andreas, David and Ann scored 3rd place in 2:31.60, including a really good anchor leg by Ann in 34.79.
- Mixed (Senior) 240+ medley team of Opal, Roger, Ian and Brenda also scored a 3rd place.
An outstanding swim at the meet was the Men’s 200+ 4 x 100m freestyle by the Tattersall’s Club in 3:54.22 (A NEW WORLD RECORD — and then some). The four individual swims are worth noting — lead off Chris Fydler (remember him? … now aged 37) 52.55, Alan Brown (66 years) 1:05.10, Grant Peters 59.60, Guy Farrow 56.97.
Great camaraderie was shown amongst the small band of Vikings and supporters (wives, mothers and kids). And, although small in number, we were loud of voice. We are in the BIG LEAGUE now because last October, our club was promoted to Division 1 after a resounding victory at the Short Course Championships at CISAC and the Long Distance meet in Kurri Kurri.
It was very welcome that Masters Swimming NSW re-introduced their GO-Country financial assistance subsidy for this meet — especially as accommodation is just about always really expensive anywhere near Sydney Olympic Park.
Full results are available.
