Report by Richard Phillips
Campbelltown Collegians hosted the first MSNSW BPS Meet for the year on 21 January 2017. Ten Vikings made an early start from Canberra, getting there just in time for some warm-up laps. The weather was gorgeous, not too hot, a slight breeze and we all enjoyed the crystal-clear outdoor long course pool. However, swimming backstroke without a ceiling for reference was a cause of concern for some. A total of one hundred and sixty swimmers had registered for the competition, representing twenty-eight clubs.
Our Vikings put on a great show of confidence and quality swimming throughout the day.
Katrina Burgess had a fantastic start to the meet, with a 400m Freestyle time of 5:23.41. She continued the meet as she began with a quadrella performance in all four Freestyle distances, scoring maximum points in her age group. Her training partner David Bale, was happy with his 100m Freestyle time, but vowed to shave the 0.3 sec difference between them at the State Championships in April. Ann Reid also began the day with the 400m Freestyle, following up immediately with 100m Buttefly, 200m Freestyle and finishing off with 200m Buttefly, scoring maximum points in her age group.
The 400m Individual Medley is one of Caz Makin’s target events for 2017, and she finished in a pleasing 6:24.24, only half a second off her Nationals PB time from last year despite being her first attempt at outdoor Backstroke. Undeterred by the unhelpful clear, blue sky, Caz then competed in the 200m Backstroke also with an almost PB time, and scoring maximum points in her age group.
The outdoor conditions were to Donna Campbell’s liking- this was Donna’s first meet in a new age group and she was happy with the four events she swam in. She was joined in the 200m Breaststroke by Cecelia Kay. Of Cecelia’s four swims, this was her pick: “It just felt good! A bit unusual for me because I really prefer shorter distances”.
Despite claiming to be “swimming like a rock”, Brenda Day enjoyed her 200m Butterfly swim, having already done a 400m Individual Medley first-up.
An impressive 2:37.13 for the 200m Backstroke was Jenna Freeman’s favourite swim, and she also scored well in the 100m Freestyle and Backstroke events.
Richard Phillips managed to record a PB in the 100m Freestyle and swam a controlled and “to plan” 200m Freestyle with a first ever time sneaking just under 2:50, possibly assisted by his new Christmas jammers! We were joined by a second-claim member, Paul Maggs from Molonglo who also happily improved his PB for the 100m Freestyle.
We had two relays teams – one in the Mixed 4×50 Medley 240+ age group (finishing in 3rd place in a competitive field) and one in the Womens 4×50 Medly 200+ age group (finishing in 1st place).
Campbelltown is one of the easiest Sydney competitions for Vikings to attend. They have a great pool, a sausage sizzle, we were able to get there and back in a (long) day and have a McFlurry or two on the way home.
Our club finished in 5th overall position on points, behind the hosts Campbelltown and the big three Sydney clubs – Manly, Warringhah and Ryde. – who all had 16 or more swimmers competing.
Full results are available.
