World Masters Games Wrap-Up
It was a thrilling week for all involved at the World Masters Games. At 30 swimmers strong, we looked impressive in our new red hoodies, but even better, we came away extremely decorated with a total of 43 medals. On a per capita basis, the women fared slightly better earning 17 medals with 11 swimmers, while the men earned more medals – 19 – with 19 swimmers. Moral of the story – the women are better (they always are), but we need more of them!! No doubt, that if one of them (Isla) had not been ill, we would have smashed the men in quantity as well.
In addition to the medals, we also smashed multiple records – 47 club records, 5 state records, and 4 national records. There are too many individuals to call out in this meet report, but be sure to check out the extremely impressive results for North Sydney on our website at: http://www.northsydneymasters.org.au/CarnivalResults/2009/10-10-WorldMastersGames.asp
Although often the most tiring, the best events were the relays at the end of the days on Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri. In total, we entered 14 relays – all of which came in the top 10, with 50% earning medals and 4 breaking National Records!
In summary, here were the standings at the end of the week:
|
Medal
|
Men (19)
|
Women (11)
|
Relays
|
Total
|
|
Gold
|
4
|
7
|
2
|
13
|
|
Silver
|
6
|
6
|
3
|
15
|
|
Bronze
|
9
|
4
|
2
|
15
|
|
TOTAL
|
19
|
17
|
7
|
43
|
|
4-10 place
|
28
|
13
|
7
|
48
|

Unfortunately, due to some frigid waters and lack of insurance if the water wasn’t warm enough, the open water swim was cancelled. No doubt, the loss of a few more medals! The worst part was that some people had held off on celebrating the week on Friday night in anticipation of the swim on Saturday. What was missed on Friday, was made up for on Saturday. We had a fantastic dinner in the city for participants and their partners, friends & family (organised by Gill O’Mara). Many of us tried on our medals and all had many glasses of wine and great fun!
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NSW SC State Champs
13 swimmers competed at the NSW SC Championships in Canberra on Aug 29-30. Even though not all swimmers could stay for both days, the team still managed to place 5th in the large team category with the limited number of swimmers and swims. With 5 relays total, we also placed 5th overall in relays with 3 firsts and 2 seconds.
Individual highlight swims included: Gillian O’Mara lowering her 50 Fr national record by 3/100ths to 27.83, Melissa Beams breaking the 30 second barrier with a 29.51 50 Fr, Louise Stevenson reducing her 200 Fr National record to 2:09.70, and newcomer Ian Hemmings setting 3 new club records including a 1:04 100 backstroke. On an aggregate basis, Louise Stevenson, Gillian O’Mara, and Christina Echols all won their individual age groups.
Louise Stevenson is focused on World Masters Games, so followed up with a second weekend of racing at the Tasmanian Championships in Hobart on Sept 5-6. She took another THREE seconds off her national 200 Fr record in a hot time of 2:06.52 along with some very fast times in 400Fr, 200 IM and 400 IM. Cheer for Louise at World Masters Games where she is looking to break a few world records.
Up next – 17 swimmers are warming up for World Masters Games at the Ryde Carnival on Sept 19 and then 20 or so North Sydney swimmers will be taking on the World at World Masters Games at Homebush from Oct 10-18.
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As well as all the existing features we will now be including reports from carnivals and oceanswims and other bits of news and information about the club.
It would also be great to have your contributions on the site too. So if you have any great ideas about things you would like to add to the site
please let us know.
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