Good Times in Levin

Last weekend's North Island Champs would have to be considered one of the most successful Masters meets in recent times. 129 Swimmers descended on Levin and this would be the largest number of swimmers at a Masters event for quite some time.

South City showed up and had a couple of houses booked at the nearby holiday 'village' of Waitarere Beach; a 'safe swimming beach' though due to thechigh winds it didn't look much like safe swimming while we were there.

Friday night was a long one with a number of events including the 800/1500 Freestyle so it was nearly 10.30 pm before we left the pool. Levin Masters came up trumps again though, providing a variety of soups and buns for the hungry swimmers. Great idea Levin, very much appreciated.

An early start on Saturday morning had me wondering 'why?' but when we were rewarded with a 2 hour recovery period in the middle of the day it was all worthwhile. It was easier to contemplate being able to perform well in the afternoon after a decent rest.

The afternoon session culminated in a number of relays which were so well attended it required 3 heats to complete the mixed freestyle. Finishing up the meet was the all important Thomas Cup which is a 3 man, 3 woman freestyle relay. There was a nail biting finish between Levin and South City. Who won? More on that later.

The evening dine and dance was at the local Cozzie Club with a quite delightful 2 piece resident band who may have been a little confused about what decade it was. Everyone was having a good time but seemed pretty tired; swimming your heart out will do that to you. We lead a bit of a pansy night life really don't we? One day I might try staying up past 10 pm just to see what it is like.

How did we go, swimming wise? Very well indeed with some very fancy times being swum. I know of one of our swimmers who took 4 minutes off his 1500 freestyle time and another of our swimmers who did a PB in every event. Most swimmers swam at least one PB if not more. As for that very important club trophy, the Thomas Cup, yes, we just beat out the home team.

Thanks Levin for putting on a great meet, you can run this one again any time you like. 

You can find all the photos on our Flickr page. A big thanks to Tanya for the wonderful photos.
2015 NI Champs Photos

The whole squad

Thomas Cup team, minus Dan Feisst