Hundreds inbound for long course swim meet

THE Wangaratta Sports and Aquatic Centre will be bustling this weekend as swimming clubs from across the state descend on the town for the Wangaratta Amateur and Wodonga City Long Course Meet. Hosted in the outdoor pool at the WSAC, some 383 swimmers from both Ovens and Murray swim district clubs and larger metropolitan clubs are set to dive into the action across Saturday and Sunday. Wangaratta Amateur Swimming Club president Mel Jackson said the event was shaping up to make a massive splash. “There’ll be hundreds and hundreds of swimmers competing,” she said. “More than 95 events have been sold out for session one on the Saturday - we have 35 registered (from WASC) and there are 383 total swimmers from around the state.” Jackson said the town and facilities were major drawcards for clubs from Melbourne to make the trek up the Hume Freeway to compete in Wangaratta. “The new pool that we have, it’s an amazing, world class pool,” she said. “With this event, we’ve been attracting Melbourne clubs coming down for the weekend, which is great for the community and local businesses.” For local swimmers, the Wangaratta Amateur and Wodonga City Long Course Meet is a chance to further improve on times which could see them qualify for state or national meets. Jackson said there would be cash and spot prizes for swimmers to also compete for on the day. “What the swimmers are there for is to get times to go to Countries (Country Championships), which is in January, so they’re trying to chase those times so they can go to the state events,” she said. “They’re also chasing state and national times to be able to compete in those events. “After we do our event, our coaches will actually go through all of our swimmers and see who’s qualified for all those events. “For these events, we do have medals for first, second, and third, and in hot heats which are randomly picked if a swimmer comes first they’ll get a voucher or something like that.” The Wangaratta Amateur and Wodonga City Long Course Meet will commence from 12pm on Saturday, November 23 at the Wangaratta Sports and Aquatic Centre.

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