Saturday 26 February 2022 Lakeside Leisure Centre, Tuggeranong
On what turned from a cloudy, cool summer’s afternoon into a wet and windy evening, the Tuggeranong Vikings organised a well run set of time trials in preparation for the National Championships to be held in the Sydney Olympic Pool in April. Starting at 3pm and finishing not long after 5, swimmer’s from 9 MSA clubs(1) swam in sets of four to record times in 11 events.
Molonglo Water Dragons had five ladies and six gents and as you will see from the recorded times below they all did very well. All 36 individual times were in the NSW Top 10 for 2022 (at 26th February) and eight of these were the fastest so far with 12 second fastest and six third fastest.
The most exciting time was swum by our Men’s 4x50m 320 – 359 Freestyle relay team whose 2.58.43 is the fastest swum in Australia since 2018 and the 4th fastest of all time. With NSW relay championships in July and the NSW Long Course Championships at the AIS in October it is hoped that this team of Geoff, Gary, Mike and John can stay together for the year.
On an individual level Mary-Liz, Marg and Chris all swam in the maximum allowed four events and were all pleased with their times. Yelena and Tamarind contested their first Masters event and acquitted themselves very well. Yelena was helped along by her two-child cheer squad yelling “come on Mum”. Hero of the day was Tim who two weeks ago was in hospital for an operation. John is looking good for the breaststroke events at the Nationals, where he will be joined by Nik, our fastest swimmer of the day. Unfortunately both Mike and Geoff had their goggles fall down at the start of the 200m Freestyle and subsequently swam slower than they could have. They made up for it in their other swims. Gary was suffering sore knees, so withdrew from the breaststroke and butterfly, but they did not effect his freestyle.
In summary all swimmers benefitted from the practice and experience they gained on the day and urge all fellow members to join in and have a similar practice before the State Championships are held in October at the AIS.
(1) Swimmers attended from Ginninderra, Molonglo, Tuggeranong and Woden (all in the ACT), Penrith and Seaside Pirates (Sydney), Oak Flats (Illawarra), Sapphire Coast (Pambula), and Bushrangers (a club for unattached swimmers NSW wide), plus there were two swimmers who were not members of an MSA club.
MOLONGLO WATER DRAGONS RESULTS at ACT TIMETRIALS
Saturday 26 February 2022
Lakeside Leisure Centre, Tuggeranong
