Newsletter May 2007
General Notes
Six of our members swam in the NSW AUSSI Masters long-course championships at Homebush on 21-22 April: Ian Hampton, Peter Steele, Steve Walker, Suzie Gunning, Ann Reid and Jeanette Sheather. Between them they brought home ten medals. Well done! Full details are on our notice board at the pool, and on the club website www.aussi-vikings.org (follow the “Results” link on the left).
Geg Gourley and Richard Flockart swam at the AUSSI Masters national swim in Darwin 4-7 May. Greg won two bronze medals - 50m BA and 200m BA, and Richard a silver in the 200m BU and a bronze in the 100m BU. Congratulations, boys! Richard is a member of Power Points in Melbourne, but he trains with us, so that’s why we’re including him in our results. The full results can be found on the national AUSSI Masters website. www.portal.aussimasters.com.au
We have received $1500 in sponsorship from Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union & Amateur Sports Club (better known as Vikings), for which we are very grateful. This money helps to cover the ongoing costs of lane-hire and coaching. We also receive the net proceeds from Vikings meat raffles when we are rostered for selling raffle tickets, which is about four times a year.
Talking of raffle tickets, our next session is on Friday 6 July. Ann will be calling for volunteers to sell raffle tickets at the Erindale club that evening from 5 to 6pm or 6 to 7pm - or for the full two hours if you are really keen. Now that the club is smoke-free, this is a far more pleasant task than it used to be, so do consider coming along to help. We will probably have an informal club dinner afterwards.
Bunbury Postal Swim 2007
It’s on again this year, the Bunbury 3 x 400m winter postal swim. As a club we have performed well in this event in the last few years. Let’s see if we can maintain our reputation this year.
What is involved in this competition?
400m Freestyle, 400m Backstroke and 400m Breaststroke (or Butterfly)
Swims must be completed between 1 May and 30 June
Join us at any aerobic swim session to be timed for these swims, or talk to Brenda Day or Jane Lindsay to arrange another time.
National Aerobic Swim Results 2006
We have now received the official results booklet for 2006. Our total of 2521 points put us in 19th place out of a total of 84 competing clubs in the champion club listing. In the aerobic award listing, which ranks clubs on points per registered member, we were 25th with a score of 37.63. These results are a vast improvement over our 2005 performance (27th with 1928 points, and 37th with 26.05 points per registered member), but can we maintain our standard? The booklet will be available for people to read at aerobic swim sessions.
Certificates have been awarded by AUSSI Masters Swimming Australia to our four super fish who completed every swim: Adrian Davis, Brenda Day, Diane Gregory and Ann Reid.
The other ten participants in the programme also made a very valuable contribution to the overall result: Andrea Ashley, Peter Clayden, Lily Gilroy, Suzie Gunning, Liz Lillie, Jane Lindsay, Jenny Moore, Liz Needham, Judy Terrell and Steve Walker.
If some of you are wondering how you managed to participate in the programme without attending any aerobic swim sessions, think about your swims at long-distance meets. If you swam a 1500m event last year, your time will have been noted by our eagle-eyed aerobics recorder, and included in the programme.
Aerobic Swims for May and June
Saturday 12 May, 2-4pm
Tuesday 15 May, 10.30 - 12 noon
Sunday 20 May, 5-6pm
Saturday 26 May, 2-4pm
Tuesday 5 June, 10.30 – 12 noon
Saturday 16 June, 2-4pm
Tuesday 19 June, 10.30 – 12 noon
Sunday 24 June, 5-6pm
Saturday 30 June, 2-4pm
Swimmers are asked to contribute $2 at each Saturday and Tuesday session to help defray the cost of hiring lanes. There is no charge for Sunday sessions.
Report from Diane on the 2007 Mekong River Swim
Well, having thought I had left the joys of organizing swimming meets in the very capable hands of others, about a month after I arrived here I read an ad in the local English-speaking newspaper saying “Volunteers required for Mekong River Swim”. The temptation to see what this meant was too great– surely people are not actually going to swim in the Mekong River? And was there actually some organized swimming here?
I went to the meeting at a local expat coffee house, and feelings of deja vu came flooding back. My first question was responded to with a very profound, “Yes, you can swim in the Mekong - the swim has been going on for 12 years, and nobody has drowned or died of some disgusting water-borne disease (that we know of)” The meeting then proceeded with the very familiar: “We don’t have enough volunteers”; “How can we make it easier to run?”; “How do we do it with no money”; “ I did all the work last year and I’m not doing it again”. Why is it that some things are the same no matter where in the world you are?
Naturally, I couldn’t say no, and so found myself on the organizing committee of the 12th Annual Mekong River Swim. As an Australian Masters Games and National Swim Organizing Committee veteran I figured this would be a snap - no sanctioning body, no National Body or Masters Games committee to watch over us, no swimming pool to negotiate with and no Meet Manager system - how hard could it be?
However, as the tasks were passed out, I found myself with very little to offer. Negotiating with the Commune Council at the swim site seemed a little out of my league (given I didn’t know what a commune council was, and I spoke no Khmer), as was negotiating with Cambodian boat captains to get us to the site and Vietnamese long boat owners to provide the safety ( I didn’t know what a Vietnamese long boat was either.) Smooth-talking potential sponsors were also going to be a problem, as I had no idea on how Phnom Penh (or the event ) worked, and with virtually no access to technology I wasn’t going to be much value with putting posters together. So I gamely offered to do the one thing I thought I could manage – get t-shirts printed.
Many meetings later (2 weeks before the event) still no real advertising, still no sponsors, still no boats, still no safety organized and still no volunteers - I was beginning to wonder what I had got into. A visit to the site did nothing to allay my fears – a 40minute tuk tuk drive, a very steep and muddy river bank to climb down, a very fast current running one way and a very heavy wind blowing the other way, a distant spot across the river and another steep bank which was apparently the finishing line. I say again – what was I doing??? And I was about to fork out $150 for t-shirts with no idea if there were actually any swimmers (that may not seem a lot of money, but in my current economic climate believe me it is) and this nagging fear (I blame it all on AUSSI) that surely there should be some system for making sure all those swimmers that start the race actually get out of the water at some stage.
Anyhow, I take it all back. The event occurred yesterday [9 April], one hundred swimmers turned up. Drink, food and copious quantities of beer all provided by sponsors on site, together with a host of donated prizes. As many volunteers as we needed, spectator craft in place, organized Vietnamese long boats at the ready supported by kayakers and a medical team, nobody slipped and broke a leg, nobody drowned, nobody got sick (yet!), the river was calm, and I did the swim and finished 16th. .
Only thing was I didn’t order enough t-shirts!
Life in Phnom Penh goes on.