The annual MSV Relay Carnival has become a firm favourite on the Belugas competition calendar. This year was the club’s third outing, and there was a twist – the meet was held a month earlier than usual, and this time the format was short course, rather than the usual long course. Once again, MSV stirred up the competitive juices with the ‘Battle of the Divisions’ – clubs were ranked according to their relative size and pitted against others with similar memberships with the challenge of winning their division!

It’s interesting to recall that the first time we competed at this meet (just two short years ago in 2015) we fielded 20 teams and were a little short of female competitors. We’d just taken delivery of our brand new club t-shirt. We barely knew the rules. Fast forward to 2017 and no less than 27 Belugas were there to compete, resplendent in purple team livery!  This time we had more girls than boys, and were able to field at least one team in every one of the 18 events (in many events we had two or three teams competing) – for a total of 40 teams.

The short course nature of the meet meant that turnaround times between events were very tight, and a swim-down was a luxury – usually it was out of the pool and straight back into the marshalling area for the next event, still dripping wet!  This is where the benefit of winter training and fitness came through, with a few minutes’ rest sufficient for our swimmers to take off the blocks and once again swim out of their skins.

True to tradition, an incredible smorgasbord of goodies lined the seats to provide energy and restoration for the swimmers – muffins sweet and savoury, banana bread, cakes, fresh fruit, lamingtons, bread and dips, lollies galore, Janet’s famous rocky roads, and this year a brilliant new creation by Georgia: purple Beluga cookies!

The day passed in a blur of marshalling room banter, high fives between teams entering and leaving the arena, panicked searching for missing team members, nervous adjustment of goggles and scanning of the scoreboard, the jolting starter’s buzz, and frenetic ploughing of arms through the water as time briefly stood still, over and over again.

Then it was off to Dundas & Faussett for some celebratory drinks and winding down, and handing out of a thick wad of place-getting ribbons in recognition of the many super swims. 

Congratulations to everyone for a brilliant set of performances, and for the amazing team and club spirit that was on display. For the second year in a row, the Belugas took out Division 3 by a more than handy margin. The growth in membership of the club means that next year we will move up to Division 2 and a new set of competitors and challenges! Until then, it’s back to the pool for more training (and the occasional leisurely breakfast!).

Full results of the meet can be found in two slightly different formats by clicking the links below. The first shows all events, placings and splits; the second shows times for the other teams and occasionally some information in relation to DQs.

belugas_placings_relay_2017
relay_results_2017