About South City Masters Swimming

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To send an email click on 'view my complete profile' (below) and click on 'email'. South City Masters Swimming swim at the Lloyd Elsemore Swimming pool located on Sir Lloyd Drive in Pakuranga, Auckland. We have 3 sessions per week of 1 hour duration each. Monday evening from 7pm to 8pm, Wednesday evening from 7pm to 8pm and Sunday morning from 8am to 9am.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Erratum

The challenge meet with Manukau Masters will be at 7.30 am on Sunday 8th June at Lloyd Elsmore pool, not 7 am.

This error was deliberate so you would appreciate the extra half hour sleep in when you realised you were getting one.

Enjoy!

Grrrrrr - time to get your challenging!

This years South City v Manukau Masters Challenge cup will take place at Lloyd Elsmore pool, 7am on Sunday 8th June.

Team - It's time to win the challenge and show what all our hard training can achieve!

Our team selectors will be contacting certain club members in the next few days to assess availability for this meet before final selection, and who is swimming which events (subject to negotiation!!)

Please keep an eye on your email for further information.

Go South City!!

Sunday, May 18, 2014

We Missed You

Camp Mum (aka Fiona) rocked up to LEP Saturday lunchtime in a van which might described as a large fridge on wheels into which 8 of us piled and headed off to the Cameron pools for the annual Auckland Short Course meet. Another 8 of us plus supporters were already there so things were shaping up to be both successful and fun.

Roskill Masters had a fantastic turnout for this fun and friendly meet and everything ran like clockwork. Roskill really should be commended, particularly these days when it is difficult for any club to run a sanctioned meet. Well done Roskill Masters!

All our swimmers were on form, swimming well and a whole bunch of PB's were achieved. Anne discovered that carbo loading for 2 weeks on the trot and going on a cruise is the new way to taper for a swim meet while Angela O was busy figuring out how to knock a whole 10 seconds off her 100 IM time (what's your secret Angela?). Giles was a very happy chappy when he cracked the 60 second barrier for his 100 Free while Mike H also had a scorcher in the 100 Free with a 1.04 - these lads just keep getting faster and one might wonder where it will end, but hey, there's Rio in 2016. Fiona, Tania and Mark all tackled the 100 Fly - why is anyone's guess but they were all looking very stylee.

Lapo stretched his new butterfly muscles in the 50 Fly and was looking very strong (it's ok Lapo, you can pay me for the clinic later). Now here is where I get a little confused; at one point of the 50 fly I realised Michael Phelps was in New Zealand but on a second look it turned out to be Dan making butterfly look like a doddle in the park. Dave B, Vince, Dawn, Avy and Andy were all looking very smooth in their 50 Free's and produced some very slick times that youngsters would be proud of.  Not least, Ross might just take the cake for achieving 4 PB's from 4 swims and cracking milestones in both the 50 and 100 Br. Phew! Have I left anyone out?

There was some light comical relief during the course of the evening, some of which was provided by Mike in the van who was quite convinced that doing several tasks one at a time qualified as multitasking. Also, if you look at the photo below you might get a glimpse of the view that Lapo may well have seen during his backstroke start.


If you want an explanation you may need to ask Lapo. No Lapo, you cannot have a refund on the backstroke clinic but yes, I may need to add a couple more drills to it next time I run it.

After all the fun of the swimming it was time to pile back into the van and head to Thai Flame to refuel. 

But wait, there's more, and this is the most important part because South City scored two more national records!

Andy Simpson is back after a long hiatus and is straight back into record breaking mode, smashing the record for 50m Free for men aged 65-69. Congrats Andy!

Next to score was the Mixed 4 x 50 Freestyle relay age 200 to 239. They lowered the record by 1.8s which is a huge amount on these relay records. A big woop woop to Andy Simpson, Avy Judelson, Dawn Walker and Giles Walker who made this record happen.

Once all the swimming was done and dusted and points added up pretty much everyone did well in their age group. As for overall points, South City were agonisingly close to taking it this year, gaining 287 points to Roskill's 300, a measly 13 points shy. That means we need more swimmers next year. This really is a fun meet with no pressure so if you think you might want to dip your toes into pool racing, this is the one to do it in.

The 'rockin' it team with the Joan Monaghan trophy won for the 4 x 50 Free 200+ mixed relay (NZ Record)

From our 'did you know' files - 13 months ago South City had been completely erased from from the record books, holding zero New Zealand Masters swimming records. At the Roskill meet 12 months ago we got back into record books with 2 individual records. Now, 12 months later our club holds a total of 9 individual national records and 4 national relay records (although yesterday's 2 and the 3 I set last weekend at the national LC champs are still to be ratified). 

Also, we now have no less than 10 club members holding NZ records. Here are our current NZ record holders, in alphabetical order:

Kath Barclay - 3 relays
Margaret Bell - 1 relay
Mark Cowling - 1 relay
Diane Grogan - 1 relay
Mike Harrison - 1 relay
Avy Judelson - 2 individual and 3 relays
Deryn McGregor - 6 individual and 2 relays
Andrew Simpson - 1 individual and 1 relay
Dawn Walker - 2 relays
Giles Walker - 1 relay

I'm guessing that's the most record holders we have EVER had! 

Just one more thing before I sign off. Thanks Fiona for doing such a fab job of meet manager, food booker, van driver and relay rallier - awesome. Also to the supporters who came and cheered and refereed and helped with timekeeping. And.........................I'm done.






Monday, May 12, 2014

Out At Last - Club Night Results

Thank you for your patience while waiting for last week's club night results. I've been out of town for a few days so am now playing catch up.

Race night last Wednesday saw numbers back up to usual with 20 swimmers strutting their stuff and our ever diligent band of officials doing their thing, keeping time, marshalling and starting. Timekeepers seemed pretty pleased with the new stopwatches. Times were quick, especially the men with the men setting 8 new records and the ladies backing them up with 3 new records. There was only time for one heat of relays; no records this month in the relays.

This month there were no surprises when Swimmer of the Month was handed out. Dawn has been smashing it out in the ocean all season. If it wasn't enough to be overall winner in her age group in the State Ocean Swim Series then what better way to spend a long Easter weekend than by swimming 10km and reaching shore ahead of all the other women. Top that!

The wooden spoon award is returning to its original roots and only going to be awarded when someone does something worthy. Anyone can nominate anyone for something they think is worth the wooden spoon (fun but not embarrassing please). Never fear, I'm always doing daft stuff so no doubt I will provide plenty of fodder if you keep your eyes open.