Report by Caroline Makin
The Hills Long Distance Meet took place on Sunday 4 November 2012 in a small, rather warm, 6 lane, 25 metre, indoor pool in Galston, NSW. Two Vikings: Anne Smyth and Caroline Makin took part in this meet and smashed four club records, one state record and one national record as well as both placing first in their age groups.
First in the pool was Caroline Makin in the 800m Individual Medley. An exceptionally fast Butterfly leg, leading out 8 seconds faster than her PB split and a strong Backstroke leg left Caroline in a good place to set a new PB compared to the one she set the previous week in Endurance swims. Unfortunately, it appeared that the heat of the water and going out so hard took it’s toll during the Breaststroke leg, which saw Caroline drop 6 seconds compared to her PB split. She struggled home in the Freestyle leg, to match but not better her PB, but still smashing the club record by 1.5 minutes, in a time of 14:06.19.
Anne Smyth‘s first swim was the 800m Freestyle. Going two swimmers to a lane, Anne powered through the swim, even stopping briefly to adjust a leaky goggle, romping home in an impressive time of 11:13.61 and smashing the club record by 2.5 minutes.
Next up, Caroline took to the water again in the 1500m Freestyle. Feeling rather nervous about losing count of laps and the warm water temperature, Caroline started out perhaps not as hard as she could have done, but turned in PB pace at the 400m and 800m mark. With a thumbs up from her swimming companion Anne at the 800m mark, Caroline ploughed on through the remain 700m of the race, losing count of her laps well and truly around the 1200m mark! She continued her swim on PB pace and hit the wall in a solid time of 22:37.82 only a fraction over her PB (previously set in Endurance swim two months earlier) and taking the 10-year long standing club record by just under 1 minute.
The finale of the day was Anne‘s 400m Butterfly swim. Anne had the club record and NSW state record easily in her sights, but the National record for her age group was potentially within reach as well. So, no pressure on Anne at all at the start of this swim! With her team mate Caroline taking splits times on the pool deck, Anne went out hard and turned strongly at the half way mark in a time that was certainly on target for the national record. With massive encouragement at the shallow end of the pool each from Caroline and even some of the officials, Anne dug in deep and secured a time of 6:46.60 taking the national record by half a second, smashing the NSW state and club records also — three records in one swim — very impressive swimming! Well done Anne.
A very successful day of swimming for these two Tuggeranong Masters ladies.
Full results are available.
