The North Mackay Sinkers Masters’ small but fun February meet attracted 37 registered swimmers last weekend, to the club’s home training pool at Mackay North State High School.
A large portion of the club participated but members were pleasantly surprised by the company of both the Mackay Swimming Academy Masters and Pioneer Swimming Club adults for additional local talent.
The meet also attracted out-of -town visitors from the Atherton Mountaineers, Long Tan Legends, Rats of Tobruk, Toowoomba Tadpoles and River City Masters.
The MSQ President Susanne Milenkevich attended to boost understanding at Branch level of small regional meets.
“It was great to have Susanne attend and cover many master’s topics,” said Dan Stampa, President of the North Mackay Sinkers Master's Swimming Club.
“We certainly appreciate the presence of all out-of-town swimmers and the effort required to attend,” he said.
“Our meet referees, JB, Peter Nowlan and Rob Lucas, kept us honest and provided tips and details for our new swimmers in the intricacies of strokes and turns.”
The meet included 800 and 400 events as a prelude to the MSQ State Championships.
The popular Skins event was a repeat handicap 25 freestyle last person swimming event hotly contested by locals and visitors alike, the prize money left town with Tony Croft of the Long Tan Legends.
“Our complimentary swimmer and volunteer prize was eagerly collected by long term master and Sinker’s member Geoff Robinson,” Mr Stampa added.
“In keeping with the club’s community spirit, we replaced our multi prize raffle with an appeal to swimmers for donations to support the Clubs March fundraiser ‘Laps for Life’ and realised $150 for this Reach out youth mental health initiative.”
The after-swim event was held at the Mackay Surf life Saving Club and was attended by over 30 guests in what proved an entertaining evening.
The Sinkers look forward to the next event, an open water swim scheduled for Sunday November 3 when the club hosts its annual river swim at the picturesque Balnagowan stretch of the Pioneer River. Mark it in your diary swimmers and choose 1.25, 2.5 or 5km events to test your endurance.
Captions
1: Round One of the skins elimination, won by Tony Croft of Townsville (2nd from camera)
2: All the fun of marshalling, time keeping and competing
3: One of the many starts of the day, the best part to any race
4: Action shots: Photo credit: Les Bunt
