Summer season set to end with a splash

THE regional long course swimming season is set to come to an epic conclusion this weekend with one of the biggest regional championships in decades. Almost 340 swimmers are expected to march their way down to the Wangaratta Sports and Aquatic Centre outdoor pool for the Ovens and Murray Swimming Championships, attracting the best swimmers in the region for the weekend-long event. Ovens and Murray District Swimming Association president Brendon Shiels said the meet is expected to be the region’s biggest championships in 20 years. “When I saw the number of entries I had to ring someone up to make sure it was real,” he said. “In comparison, we had 154 swimmers compete in 2019. “The Albury Swimming Club has been a victim of its success, anyone who joins the Albury club, who is our biggest club; all have to compete in this event, so I think that’s what’s driving the numbers.” The first dive into the water will be made at 1:30pm Saturday and swimming into the evening, before restarting at 10:30am Sunday. A total of 14 clubs will be represented ranging from Albury-Wodonga to Corryong and Mount Beauty, including Wangaratta’s own Amateur Swim Club and Wangaratta Stingrays. The Stingrays will boast 19 swimmers on the weekend across the eight to 15-year-old age brackets while the Wangaratta Amateur Swim Club will have 31 swimmers hitting the pool with gusto for their home meet. The Ovens and Murray Swimming Association is coming off one of its biggest years in 2023, having hosted Victorian Country Long Course Championships for the first time in Wangaratta along with the Victorian Country Short Course Championships. Shiels said while the state level meets were hugely beneficial for the region, it would be at least a year until the newly developed outdoor Wangaratta pool can expect the large-scale events back. “The barriers of running these meetings is finding someone to run them and running these big events does burn out your volunteers, so you need a year or so to recover,” he said. “The staff are excellent at the Wangaratta pool in supporting us and we’re really happy at the moment.” The weekend’s feature events will be the boys and girls open 100m freestyle, with the Dr Worch and G Dowling trophies sharing over 70 years of history. The championships will be exclusively individual events with the Ovens and Murray Relay Championships slated for March 3 back at WSAC.

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