Gary Stutsel Wins GBR Masters Games Male Swimmer of the Meet with 10 Gold Medals!
Three Canberra swimmers have competed in the Great Barrier Reef Masters Games in Cairns, winning a swag of medals between them.
2017 Male Swimmer of the Meet, John Collis, of Narrabundah, returned for the 2019 Games, but this time his efforts were frustrated by Paul Gibson of Darwin, a newcomer to the Games. John finished the meet with one gold (a new record in the 50m Breaststroke) and five silver medals from his six events.
John’s Molonglo Water Dragons club mate, Gary Stutsel of Turner, kept up the trend by winning the maximum possible nine individual events all in record time. Gary also swam in a relay team that won gold and broke a record. This gave him 10 gold medals, 10 records and Male Swimmer of the 2019 Meet. Both swimmers are now looking forward to the rest of 2019 with several more competitions to come starting with the ACT Interclub Masters at Gungahlin on the 16thJune.
The third Canberra swimmer was Ron Watkins of the Tuggeranong Vikings Club. Ron swam against Gary and came away with two silver medals.
Well done Canberra.
The Games held over four days featured 22 sports. Eleven of these were largely individual ranging from Archery to Tennis while the other eleven were teams sports from Baseball to Softball and included cricket and football. Competitors came from all over Australia to enjoy the warm weather and warm hospitality.
