Bar-rook Swimming Carnival

It was a great day on Sunday for the Bar-rook Swimming Club with the annual carnival being hosted at the Koondrook Pool. The turnout was amazing, with around 66 members swimming on the day plus a few siblings who took part in the fun carnival. 

In all, 10 records were broken, seven of which previously belonged to Leonard McClay, and now belong to a Leonard McClay who is one to two years older!

Remi Lake’s hard work paid off once again with her breaking the 12 and under girls 66m butterfly record, and Kasey McClay broke two records in the 17+ girls’ category. 

You could tell from the sidelines that all the swimmers gave their best on the day, but a special congratulations goes out to Walter McDonald for the six and under boys champion, Evan McNeil for the eight and under boys champion, Eliza McDonald for the eight and under girls champion, Noah Elliot for the 10 and under boys champion, Emilee Wilson for the 10 and under girls champion, Riley D’Silva for the 12 and under boys champion, Remi Lake for the 12 and under girls champion, Angus Laskowski for the 16 and under boys champion, Leonard McClay for the 17+ boys champion, and Kasey McClay for the 17+ girls champion. Remi Lake and Leonard McClay also achieved the open girls and boys champion, respectively. 

Each year, the Bar-rook Swimming Club awards one member the Margaret Davidson Award, which was created to honour her dedication to the club for the 30-odd years she coached there. This year, the Margaret Davidson Award was given to Kieran Jamerson, who displayed perseverance with his swimming and strong community values through his willingness to help all season.    

The club has a lot of thanks for the support the community has shown us. Firstly, we want to thank all the families who have brought their kids to training and the coaches for their consistent dedication. Without you all, we would not be able to have a swimming club. We want to send out a special thanks to the timekeepers, ribbon writers, starters and admin crew who jumped in to help on the day of the carnival, as well as Jacqui for catering for the carnival. 

We would also like to thank the volunteers in the pool committee for keeping the pool and facilities running smoothly. 

Finally, we would like to thank Murray Irrigation for funding the swimming club through the Learn to Swim Make a Splash program and providing participation certificates for everyone. 

Even though we have had our carnival, swimming training will continue until the end of February as long as the weather allows. The Bar-rook swimming club is also excited to announce that we have become an approved Active Kids Sports Provider. For NSW families, this means they can access free swimming training all season by using the Active Kids Vouchers available through the Service NSW website. 

It will be sad to see winter come around, and three of our longstanding coaches teach their last lesson, but we look forward to our continuing coaches and swimming community reuniting, and hopefully getting even bigger, next season. So, keep an eye on The Bridge Newspaper and the Koondrook Pool Facebook page for what we get up to next and how you can join in.