Crunch time, more appropriately 'splash time,' and the business end of the Wimmera swimming season is rapidly approaching. This weekend, Saturday, February 22, the Horsham Sharks play host to the 'grand final' of the swimming season - the Wimmera Country Swimming Championships.
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At 'The Champs' individual swimmers will compete for the title of 'best in the Wimmera' in their preferred strokes over their preferred distances, champions sashes will be awarded to swimmers with the highest points aggregate across all events in their age group, and teams will be competing for mantle of best swim club in the district. And, as if that will not be enough, swimmers will also be vying for times strong enough to secure them a place on the Wimmera District 12 Inter District squad, which will travel to Melbourne on March 29 to compete in the Victorian Inter District competition.
And with so much looming large, the final 'home-and-away-game' of the Wimmera season, the Ararat Swim meet, did not disappoint.
Drizzle misted in, temperatures fell to a 'swimmer unfriendly' 19 degrees but this dampened neither spirits nor the burning desire of swimmers to perform well, staking their claim for the day's honours as well as for confidence-boosting performances in the lead up to the all-important meets ahead.
"It was a really good day," says Ararat Rats Coach Jo Donnan. "We managed to iron out some of the hiccups we have had in previous meets and it went very well."
And whilst the weather was not conducive to the fastest of times, there were nonetheless some great performances, not least by Joyce, poolside announcer who brought smiles to everyone's faces as she waxed lyric about waning moons, the Big Kahuna, and Australian Olympic Swimmer of a century ago, Mrs. Fanny Durack.
The McKenzie Shield for the club with the highest aggregate at the meet was won by the Ararat Rats and the Innez Collum trophy for the fastest male and female 100m breaststrokers went to Deacon Briggs (Horsham) and Ivana Donnan (Ararat).
And a few standouts worthy of note: five individual golds to 'super fish' Jorja Clode (Horsham), an aggregate of 13 individual golds to the Start family (St Arnauds swimmers Heidi, Lachlan, Jordan, and Ebony - should they be called a School of Starts?)) and in the PB in a day where cold weather was not conducive to PBs, a 32 second PB by Krys Syrota to win the 200m girls 11-12 breaststroke.
"It was a feast for the breaststrokers," says Rats coach Jo Donnan.
As so, until next week, all Wimmera swimmers nerves will be jangling as they hit the lanes in their last training sessions before the most prestigious day of the Wimmera season, the Wimmera Champs.