Report by David Bale
While many of our Vikings masters members enjoy and regularly compete in various Masters Swimming events, it’s a bit less common to compete in non-Masters events such as state or national level open competitions. David Bale successfully qualified for multi-class swims at the NSW State Open Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) on 3-6 March 2017. David swam for Tuggeranong Vikings Swim Club in four of the eight multi-class events for which he’d qualified – 400, 100 and 50m Freestyle as well as the 100m Butterfly S9 category.
It was a particularly tough field with over 50 Olympians and Paralympians from eight countries competing at the meet. David was lucky enough to make the most of opportunities to chat with a number of the elite swimmers competing; Emily Seebohm indicated that this year was the toughest she had seen the competition.
Despite being the oldest competitor by eight years, and the very tough field, David overcame nerves and swam three personal best times during the meet. This included taking five seconds off his 400m Freestyle time, and shaving 0.3 seconds from his 50m freestyle time – beating 13 swimmers in the process!
David is looking forward to another great experience in April, when he swims in the multi-class events at the World Masters Games in Auckland, NZ.
Detailed Swimming NSW results for the meet are available.
