Swimming

On Monday Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Taylor McKeown told her story to students at Allora P-10 State School. No holds barred Taylor relived the good and bad memories of her determined effort to swim at the Olympics.

Ocean Beach offered near-perfect conditions for this year’s Southern Ocean Classic Mile with 125 swimmers taking to the water on Easter Sunday. Line honours went to Perth swimmer Max Coten who completed the course in just over 19 minutes.

The annual Club championship provided an action-packed day with 25 records broken and 5 new records created. Bailey Harm had an exceptional day breaking the record in all 10 events in which he competed ... It was an action-packed day in the pool enjoyed immensely by both swimmers and spectators.

Lee Mead. Lap swimmers, aerobic mermaids and happy families alike are all extremely grateful to two local legends, Sally and Kerryn, who answered the call out to train as lifeguards. Both undertook a lifeguard training course last year to help overcome the shortage of staff suffered by all swimming pools last season, and which resulted in our Maldon pool having to close some days each week.

Claire from Allora P-10 State School has set three new swim records in the Pool. At the School’s recent Annual Interhouse Swimming Carnival Claire won the Open 50m Freestyle, Open 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly.

The Clarence Valley’s next potential Ironwoman, Kalani Ives, has made the move to train under an Olympian after being crowned the National Junior Ladies champion in the Australian Ocean Racing Series. Kalani, who started Nippers when she was seven, competed in water and beach disciplines as a member of Yamba Surf Lifesaving Club for 10 years, until she claimed the NSW under 17 ironwoman title in 2021.

The Shire of Gingin and the Department of Health are warning people to avoid swimming and other full-body water immersion activities in Moore River at Guilderton after recent sampling results detected amoeba and high bacteria levels at several sampling locations.

If you’re aged between 3 and 60 and grew up in the district, chances are you were taught to swim by Geoff Dale. Geoff has celebrated 30 years of his Geoffswim program, which has seen him teach swimming and water safety to the youth of Cohuna since 1992. But his swimming teaching goes back much further – to 1967.

Rodney Stevens. They’re the eyes in the sky saving lives – drones – and Yamba Surf Lifesaving Club is fortunate to have some of the latest technology and highly skilled pilots controlling these amazing aircraft. Chances are, if you went to Yamba’s Main Beach or the Yamba Ocean Swim over the holidays, you would have seen a drone, monitoring swimmers’ safety and alerting lifesavers to any problems.

Rodney Stevens. The Yamba Ocean Swim kicked off 2023 with a splash as a record number of entrants hit the water across all age groups, cheered on by a crowd of hundreds on a stunning summer’s day ... “We had 397 entrants this year which is well up on our previous best of 354 in 2013,” said Yamba Surf Club Surf Sports Director and Race Organiser Jim Dougherty.

Maldon's Public Pool opened last Saturday, attracting a good number of people for a much-anticipated cool-off. Squeals and shrieks broke the silence as the pool officially entered its summer season and swimmers said goodbye to the cold weather.

The Allora Swimming Club annual David Rackley Memorial Swim was held under a stunning sunset sky on Friday 25th November. Pictured with Patron Marg Rackley is the 2022 Winner Maggie Philp.

Sarah Martin. Cooktown tadpole Maiika Hegamaea has blitzed a Far North record time at the recent Dimbulah Swim Club meet and brought home six first place ribbons to add to her collection. The seven-year-old has been a confident swimmer since she was a toddler and has been a member of the Cooktown Amateur Swimming Club since she was four.

The children of the Allora Swimming Club were delighted to return to their home pool in November to commence their new season of swimming ... Allora Swim Team members have already competed in the Winter Short Course Championships, Fairholme Time and Technique Meet, Turbo Jets Spring Carnival, Toowoomba Open and a weekend out West for the Chinchilla and Dalby Open meets.

Pam Dillon. Twenty-eight students from three different remote schools spent three days fine-tuning their swimming skills to improve their schools’ chances in the Barkly Region Inter-school Swimming Carnival. With the help from Swimming NT, Royal Lifesaving NT (RLSNT) and the Barkly Sport Education Coordinator, the students ranging from preschool through to Year 8 were put into groups according to their swimming ability.

The deluge of rain over recent weeks has stalled the start of the swimming season at Lake Talbot Water Park. The complex opened for the summer season on October 1 but the wet weather has deterred swimmers on many days ... “We’ve been closed more days than we’ve been open,” said pool manager, Troy Lee.

Sunshine Coast migrant residents are invited to apply for their chance to attend low-cost learn-to-swim classes. “Everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy our wonderful lifestyle and the Migrant Learn to Swim and Beach Safe Program incorporates water safety and water confidence techniques along with basic swimming lessons”: Sunshine Coast Council Community Portfolio Councillor David Law.

Local school sports legend Pam Dillon has been honoured by winning in the annual NT Sports Awards. Fondly renowned in the region as Dillon, she took out the Karen Schneider SMA Safer Sport Award at a ceremony in Darwin on the weekend.

Max Coten rode the breakers into shore to record 24 minutes and 17 seconds, the fastest time at Sunday’s Southern Ocean Classic Mile ... The Denmark Surf Life Saving Club-hosted event attracted a big field of 135 swimmers, 27 of whom were locals.

“Unfortunately there’s a lack of available trained lifeguards in the region, which is also reflected in the wider aquatic and recreation industry at the moment": Karen Evennett, Mount Alexander Shire Council.

Kirstin Nicholson. “With so many pools closing across the regions, kids will be using creeks, rivers, lakes and dams as their local swimming holes. If we don’t teach them how to be safe in these situations, it is highly likely that we see drowning rates increase in the future”: Mikayla Gibson, Cohuna teacher in charge.

Emma Pritchard. After achieving a national qualifying time and establishing a top two ranking in Australia for her age group in the 5000m open water swim, along with a silver medal, Andrea 'Torpedo' Thomson (13) is currently training to compete in the Australian Open Water National Championship in Adelaide on January 30 and focused on adding further accolades to her impressive record.