Early Winter Interclub 16 June 2018 – 25m course at Gunghalin

On a clear sunny Canberra Sunday afternoon 46 swimmers, 8 non-swimming officials and about a dozen non swimming supporters met at the Gungahlin Leisure Centre. The workers arrived before 1.30pm to set everything up with the able assistance of Lachlan and his staff at the Centre. As it was winter there was hardly another person in the deep end of the pool where we were to swim, even though we had booked only four of the eight lanes for our use.

After everything was set up, the competition got under way five minutes late at 2.35pm. Why five minutes late? Because we had to almost beg for 8 timekeepers to come forward. Perhaps we need to insist that participating clubs supply one full time timekeeper for every five swimmers or something along those lines. As it was, apart from a handful of dedicated full timers, most of our timekeepers were also competing so there was a constant turnover. On the other hand it was heart warming to see David Leake one of our Queanbeyan members going through his paces as trainee Chief Timekeeper. Under the watchful eye of Tuggeranong’s Ann Reid, David came through this pressure test with flying colours. Well done David.

Our non-swimming officials Lenny Partridge and Audrey Stutsel were busy all afternoon with Audrey marshalling the swimmers into their heats and Lenny working with Pete Sharman on recording all the results. Marg Larkin with a little help especially from President John organised the refreshments, that is tea, coffee and water with cakes and biscuits. A big thank you to Nerida McCorkell and Phil Browning, Roger Carter, Mary Liz Partridge, John Collis, Keran Titmuss and to anyone I have missed who brought along cakes or biscuits.

There was a full program of 11 individual events and a relay. Competitors were allowed to swim in four of the individual events and the majority did. This meant that over three hours they had five events, about one every 30 minutes, although several swam in two consecutive 25 metre events giving them only five minutes between both swims. Despite the pressure almost all of our swimmers swam faster than their entry times and it was pleasing to see that every Water Dragon swim was in the Top 25 for New South Wales (NSW) this year. For the actual results see the table of detailed results that follows.

Two of our swimmers swam a number 1 time, that is the fastest time in their event and age group in NSW this year. They were our President John Collis and Chris Loose our Queanbeyan Co-ordinator. It was great to welcome the four-swimmer team from Sapphire Coast again and to also have Stephen de Lorenzo of the Penrith Club, our only Sydney swimmer. We look forward to being joined by swimmers from Goulburn and Young when next we compete.

Gininderra Club from the CISAC Pool fielded a team of five while Tuggeranong had 19 and we Water Dragons 17. Unfortunately Geoff Llewellyn, Nerrida McCorkell and Gary Stutsel were unable to swim. There presence may have been able to help us edge out the Vikings but as it was they outscored us 805 to 744.

While the full results for all swimmers are available on both the National Results Portal and the MSNSW website, the times and places for each of the Water Dragons follow below. Of particular interest are the swimmers’ positions in the New South Wales Top 25 (as at 16th June 2019).

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