Campbelltown BPS Meet | 18 January 2020

Report by Cecelia Kaye & Jane Waddleton

The rain stayed at bay, making for an excellent day of racing for 11 brave Vikings swimmers at the first meet for 2020: Campbelltown BPS Meet.

There were plenty of eager Masters Swimmers ready to test the water, including the great ex-Olympian, Daniel Kowalski, now swimming with the Wett Ones club - watching him swim kept the day interesting as he is still super quick!

The day started with Donna, Richard, Anne, and Caz swimming a 400m event. This distance proved too much for the rest of the crew, who stuck to the shorter distances. 

Everyone had a mix of good race times and some events where more training might be required — but it was all fun at the end of the day. Just swimming in an outdoor 50m pool proved a challenge for most of us! This meet is a great competition for Canberra-based Masters Swimmers wanting to try a MSNSW Branch Point Score meet. It was easy to travel up and back in one day and the event was run very efficiently.

Richard, Cecelia, Anne S and Nick G did our club proud by assisting with timekeeping, while Ann R stayed busy officiating as well as swimming - a valuable asset to any swim meet. We fielded two teams in the Medley Relay and the well-organised contingent of female swimmers enabled us to take out first place in age groups for both of these races - woohoo — go Vikings!

The day finished with a cold shower (due to there being no sunshine to charge the solar panels), a sausage sizzle with plenty of sausages for seconds ... and thirds, ... and then a stop at Maccas on the way home to Canberra for a chat about everyone’s day - we were all still smiling!

Attendees were: Richard P, Anne S, Caz M, Ann R, Donna C, Paul M, Leisa C, Katrina B, Nick G, Cecelia K and Jane W, along with Pete S for moral support.