"Two weeks ago our pool wasn't even open. Our swimmers hadn't started training," says Nicole Amos, one of the St Arnaud's Pirahna swim coaches. "We had to take an earlier event date than usual because the Horsham pool is being remade and so their meet was moved to February."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two weeks earlier the Horsham Encouragement Swim Meet was cancelled. The Stawell Stingrays, an integral club in the Victorian Swimming's District 12 - the Wimmera - are struggling for numbers and support. "We have had to face a number of challenges at the beginning of this season," Ms Amos.
Nonetheless, on Saturday December 7, 105 young Wimmera swimmers - as well as some not quite so young - stepped up onto the starting blocks at the Wimmera District 12, St Arnauds swim meet. "It was awesome," says Ms Amos. "I don't think we have ever had a meet run so smoothly."
The swimmers competed in 352 events and recorded almost 200 "first times" or personal best times. Jorja Clode and Jacob Matuschka, both from the Horsham Sharks, won the individual honours of the Leigh Amos Memorial trophies, awarded for the best male and female swimmers, over four strokes, in the 12-13 year age category. Heidi Start, age 10, won the Heather Phillips trophy for the highest points aggregate by an individual swimmer.
For Emily Rose of the Stawell Stingrays, St Arnauds is her first swim meet. "My friends were swimming and I wanted to see what it was like. The training is very tiring but its nice." she says. "The 100m freestyle was my first race and I was pretty nervous. But afterwards I was pretty proud."
"Swimming is not a sport," notes "Johnno" Knight, President of both the Stawell Stingrays and the Wimmera District, "it is a life skill. We are attracting more girls to the sport at the moment and a lot of them are youngsters. Look at the age 10-11 girls breaststroke. There were 21 competitors. Swimming keeps kids fit and healthy," he continues, "They don't even realise how fit they get."
Hannah Syrota, an 8 year old Horsham Shark, steps on to the blocks and confronts her fears of racing. Shortly before, she had been in tears. "I found it very nerve racking at the start," she says, "Later on I was still nervous but I knew that I could do it." And later on still, she is all smiles when she wins medals - she calls them pieces of treasure - in two of her races.
And just as newcomers Hannah and Emily successfully confront their own personal challenges in beginning their first summer swim season, so too have St Arnauds and the Wimmera District.