Two weeks ago, our club was thrilled to receive a leather encased stopwatch donated by Shirley Davison.
This gift was very much appreciated and a huge thank you goes out to Shirley for her kindness and also to Sarah Dougherty for its safe delivery.
Last week I overlooked the fact that the winner of the 30m freestyle final, Damien O’Mahony, was also the lucky recipient of the Jake Kroehnert (Elders) Explosive Cup. The sponsorship of this monthly cup carries on a tradition that has been ongoing for almost forty years.
A small contingent of five swimmers from Grafton travelled to Southport on February 12 for the Zone carnival and despite numbers being small the outcome was quite good.
Grafton teamed up with Ballina in the ten-person championship relay and was placed third.
In the Men’s 70-74 years freestyle championship Ian Goodman was placed second and Steve Donnelly also scored a second placing in the Men’s 65-69 years freestyle championship.
Two first placings went to Terry Marsh and Sharon Welch – Terry took out the Men’s 60-64 years freestyle championship and Sharon the Ladies 50-54 years freestyle championship.
Gary Dixon and Steve Donnelly were placed second in the Men’s Brace relay and Steve also reached the 50m freestyle handicap semi-final.
Gary qualified for the final of the 50m freestyle handicap event and took out third place and Ian Goodman also qualified for the semi-final of the 25m freestyle handicap event.
Paul Smith and Bruce Phelps were welcomed back to competition this week after quite a break and both qualified for a final
In the 50m final the placings were Bruce Phelps first, Toni Ensbey second and Damien O’Mahony third.
Anne Simkus took the win in the 30m freestyle as Doug Ensbey, Jenny Vickery and Richard Sear were all disqualified.
The final of the B B & B saw Paul Smith in the winning circle with Jenny Vickery second and Andrew Madden third.
All eyes are now on the AIF National carnival that is being held at Coffs Harbour on March 19. At this stage it looks as though there will be twenty swimmers from Grafton attending.
Toni Ensbey