MSA Nationals Reflections

Thank you to Ross Hall; Manly President, for taking the time to write his story around the MSA National Championships in Brisbane. This truly brings out the joy of being a Masters Swimmer!

When the event schedule was first published for this meet I was initially a bit daunted and disheartened – I was clearly one of the slowest swimmers competing and therefore in the last (slowest) or second last heat for almost every event I had entered.
I was also in the men’s age group with the most entrants (47) so I thought this could be ugly!
Doubts crept in as to why I was going and whether or not I was of a sufficient standard to be competing, particularly given the strength of our team.
I gave myself a ‘reality check’ and told myself that sometimes in life, you have to put yourself out there for good things to happen.

I was feeling fit and healthy, (both blessings for which I am very grateful) and went to Brisbane with three main aims in mind:

1) to swim to the best of my ability;
2) to support my Manly teammates at every opportunity, and
3) to have fun and ‘enjoy the ride’.

I believe I achieved all three aims and received more in return than I could have ever hoped for – here are some of the highlights:
* I had the privilege of sharing time with John Martin, who at age 90, is our oldest competitive club swimmer. John competed on Day 1 only and also stayed with me.
* For the record, John competed in two individual events and one relay, where he collected a gold and silver medal (100 free and 50 Back respectively). We went out to dinner with most of the group on those first two nights – it was an absolute delight to spend time with John.
* I met and chatted with fellow swimmers on the 30 minute shuttle bus ride to the pool and back each day where we compared swimming stories and talked about other things.
* Whilst time-keeping on pool deck one day, I was inspired by the man in his eighties who swam a 400m backstroke – a challenging feat in its own right, except that this man was an amputee and only had one leg.
* I was again on pool-deck timekeeping when the first and fastest heat of the Men’s 50m butterfly was swum – possibly the most exciting race on the calendar.
* Scott Miller, a former Olympic butterfly silver medalist from Atlanta 30 years ago (now aged 51) was the focus of all eyes – he was touched out by a much younger swimmer and swam 25.41 secs. The sight of 10 elite butterfly swimmers surging towards you was a sight to behold!
* I shared a lovely Italian meal with Tony Goodwin one night and learned a little about his life story, away from the pool.
* I met our youngest competitor, 29 year old Ben McVean for the first time and learned a little about his life and witnessed him win a Gold medal in the men’s 400m backstroke.
* I spent time both at the pool and over dinner with the lovely Brits’ family – daughter Kara and parents Jeanette and Gary.
* I was regaled by stories from Ray Barnett’s time growing up in the UK.
* I was on pool deck with many others when Cam McEvoy lined up in Heat 1 of the Men’s 25m freestyle – he swam the event in 9.32 secs and beat his nearest rival by approx. 1.3 secs – a staggering winning margin in such a short event against the best masters swimmers in the country!
* I witnessed first hand some amazing swims by our whole team.
* I experienced first-hand the wonderful vibe in the arena – a fantastic announcer and commentator, Greg Flanders from Brisbane Southside Club (who wasn’t competing). He read out swimmer profiles during longer events, commentated on many others and played appropriate songs which had the whole place rocking including dancing timekeepers using the timing button as a pretend microphone.
* I was poolside on the last day when Dan and Jeanette both swum amazing 800m freestyle races in adjoining lanes.
* Oh yes, ———– and one last thing I nearly forgot…….
Unbeknown to me and most everybody else at the time, Cam McEvcoy had asked officials if he could swim the 25m free a second time. There happened to be a couple of spare lanes in the final heat (my heat). There was a ‘mystery swimmer’ in Lane Zero. The commentator called the race and with everyone glued to the event, Cam McEvoy won the heat in a time of 9.26 seconds – the fastest 25m freestyle time ever recorded – now that’s a memory that’s hard to top!
* I was one of 6 of the Manly team who attended the Championship Awards Presentation Evening and shared in the excitement of Jeanette and Tony both winning the ‘Swimmer of the Meet’ Awards – not bad when you consider there were nearly 800 competitors!
These are some of the priceless memories from the meet that I will long remember and treasure. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

On balance, I would happily take these experiences and be in the slowest heats any day of the week!