7th annual Winter Pier to Pub, Lorne

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

 

 

A little over a year ago, flush with the excitement of competing at our first Nationals, Beluga conversation over celebratory drinks turned to what we might do next that could trump this meet. “Why stop at the Nationals!” announced Tracy. “The Worlds are in Auckland next year!”. This was met with much enthusiastic whooping and agreement by all assembled that this would be a ‘must-do’ event.

Fast forward a year and while the ranks of the ‘definites’ had inevitably thinned a little, there remained a committed core of club swimmers still locked in and ready to ‘dream large’ at WMG2017. And so eight Belugas – Ale, Camille, Kate, Maureen, Raoul, Richard, Tracy and Wayne – found themselves winging their way across the Tasman in late April, facing the challenge of pitting themselves against the world’s best.

Tracy’s sister-in-law Joanne and her husband Paul had (presumably in an unguarded moment, possibly while being plied by alcohol) offered their property as the ‘Olympic Village’ for the entire contingent to stay at. They proved the most generous and hospitable of hosts – warm, welcoming, unflappable and relaxed. Set in the lush rolling hills of Dairy Flat, there was a delightful accommodation block replete with pool table, kitchen, comfy lounges, a massive deck with view over verdant green, a swimming pool and a fire pit.

Night after night ever more amazing feasts were unveiled, accompanied by rather more wine and beer than a Beluga competing the next morning should probably be indulging in, but such was the vibe that it was desperately hard to resist.

As it turned out, the contingent was in such rare form that even daily over-indulgence in good food and wine had no discernable effect on the performances.

The first five days of competition were in the Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre (AKA the Millennium Stadium), where the ‘indomitable seven’ (Kate didn’t compete, but was the heart and soul of the support crew) put in a truly inspiring set of performances: in 21 heats across 11 events, they set 18 personal bests and 13 brand new club records.

But there was more excitement yet to come. The final day of competition saw the Belugas competing in their natural home and favoured environment – the blue ocean. This event confirmed how truly world-class our swimmers are, with Tracy romping home for a gold medal and Ale snagging the bronze medal in their respective age categories in the 1.2km swim. Maureen also put in a wonderful swim in the 1.2km, Raoul and Wayne completed the 2.5km, and Richard was the hero of the day, doing the epic 5km swim.

WMG2017 was an absolute blast. Thanks to the whole contingent for some wonderful memories, and we look forward to an even larger team of Belugas heading to Japan for WMG2021!

WMG2017 – FULL MEET RESULTS 

WMG2017 – POOL MEET 
CR=Club Record, PB=Personal Best

WMG2017 – OPEN WATER 
Recreational=wetsuit, Championship=non-wetsuit

“You idiot!” the car park attendant chuckled cheerfully when I told him I planned to do both the 3.8km and 1.4km swims at today’s Rip View Classic in Point Lonsdale. And certainly the conditions were not those to gladden the heart of the open water swimmer – leaden skies and a 30km/h southerly, whipping up a nasty ocean chop.

Undaunted, the long-course contingent of Belugas – Anthony Ferguson, Owen Leggett, Vito Muré, Paul Turner and myself (now where were all those girl Belugas?) – piled into the minibus and headed for the start. On the beach, a lifeguard gave us a race briefing straight out of Fawlty Towers. “Keep the first two buoys on the seaside.” “No, make that the land side”. “Keep the last set of buoys on your left!” “Actually, you need to keep them on your right!”. This prompted much shrugging of shoulders, confused shaking of heads, and quizzical chatter as we lined up at the water’s edge. After what seemed like an eternity shivering in the lazy wind, the crack of the starter’s gun saw the competitors spilling into the water like penguins off an ice floe.

Between the start and the first turning buoy is always an intense part of the race – it feels a bit like being dropped into a giant washing machine full of thrashing humans – clawing arms, sharp elbows and unexpected kicks to the body. This is a time to stay calm, ensure that the goggles stay on, and assertively claim aquatic real estate before finding that elusive patch of green water to settle into a good rhythm. That is, to the degree that any rhythm was possible with heavy swell smacking the swimmers on the left side. It felt pretty rough to me, though the Williamstown 10k swimmers later scoffed at any comparison with the horrendous conditions at WOW some weeks earlier. Owen seemed unbothered by it all, powering through the swell in his usual effortless, silky style to post a sensational third place overall, and 2nd place in his age category. Paul Turner may have had cause to regret his unorthodox training preparation (languishing on an inflatable unicorn in Bali while drinking lemongrass mojitos) but along with the rest of us he ploughed on manfully for finishing honours and the pride of having completing the long course without the indulgence of a second skin of neoprene.

The 1.4km course, which started an hour or two later, is always a firm favourite. Usually the conditions are sunny, the water sparkles, and the beach is crowded with spectators. Today the grey conditions made it all a bit more subdued, but a festive atmosphere prevailed nevertheless and swimmers took to the water against the backdrop of the Spirit of Tasmania making its way across the heads. For those of us who had decided to do both the 3.8k and 1.4k, staying warm was a challenge and there was ample opportunity to regret the decision to once again swim without a wetsuit. Vito miscalculated his wave start time by a mere 40 minutes but was able to join in with the 50 year-old ‘young guns’ and nevertheless have his time recognised.

This time a portly gentleman with grey beard, wide-brimmed sunhat and English accent provided the pre-race briefing, including such helpful tips as to let the lifesavers in their IRBs know if we happened upon a shark. He looked and sounded vaguely familiar but I had no idea until Sue told me later that it was celebrity chef Matt Preston. In fact, for a while I was convinced it was Adrian White.

Once again there were impressive performances aplenty, with 18 Belugas finishing and Sue Cox and Tracy Cameron backing up their great performances from last year with yet another set of podiums. Sandy Iuliano put in a great swim to place 4th, Sue Muir placed 6th, brand new signing Liz Bell showed her class with an excellent 7th (unassisted by a wetsuit), and Wayne Mortensen rounded out the top 10 finishers with a terrific 10th place. Congratulations to all the finishers on a wonderful set of swims – you really do make the club proud!

Then it was on to the traditional and well-justified watering and feeding of the troops, post-mortem of performances, gratuitous advice about training and tactics, and reminiscing about what could have been. Once the swim is over, the itch to complete another is not long in setting in. Luckily we don’t have long to wait, with Pier to Pub just four days away.

Many thanks to club statistician Anthony Ferguson for compiling the results.