By Michael Boyle & Julia Galan / SwimSpire
Swimming is a big deal in Australia and Masters events are no exception. Masters Swimming Australia recently opened up online registration for the 41st National Championships, to be held from April 21st – 24th, 2016 in Melbourne. This fun, four-day championship event will take place at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, an international venue that has previously hosted competitions such as the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and the 2007 World Championships. Capital city of Victoria, and ranked among the world’s most liveable cities, Melbourne itself is a reason to attend the Nationals.
Michael Boyle
Reston Masters Swim Team member Michael Boyle traveled from Virginia to Tasmania last year for the 40th Australian Masters Championships from April 8th-11th, 2015. Despite the distance between countries, Michael knew he had to grab this once in a lifetime opportunity, and ultimately felt the journey was worth the effort. Below are his thoughts on the Australian Nationals experience. – JG
While updating swimming events on the Reston Masters Swim Team Facebook group last year, I was surprised to come across a ClubAssistant-hosted event that was not your average swim meet – the 40th Australian Masters National Championships in Hobart, Tasmania. It only took a few minutes for me to decide that this would be my once-in-a-lifetime chance to not only visit Australia again (I had previously traveled to Sydney and Brisbane), but also get to do what I enjoy most – swimming!
After over 34 hours of travel time, I arrived in Hobart to compete and see what Australian Nationals were all about. During the course of my week-long stay, I encountered only pleasant surprises.
From warmup to the completion of the competition, the meet organization was most excellent. Two sprint lanes were available during warmups – one lane in the competition pool and another in the warm-up/warm-down pool. The sprint lane was left open in the warm-up/warm-down pool during the entire meet, so you could work on your starts at any time. With a field of 600+ swimmers, you would expect long lines, but they were non-existent! I thought the sprint lane was a great addition to the meet.
And yes, lap swimming is done correctly – that is, clockwise, not like us Yanks who swim counterclockwise!
Also during warmups, there were dedicated lanes for backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. The other lanes were divided into fast and slow freestyle. Once the meet was underway, the warm-up/warm down pool would set up a dedicated stroke lane before each event – for example, if the next event was 100 breaststroke, a lane would be set aside for ‘breaststrokers’ before the event.
To keep the meet running smoothly and efficiently the organizing team had an excellent plan. There were 4 coordinators responsible to make sure everyone was in their right place:
1. The check-in coordinator – everyone would check in to confirm that they were swimming;
2. The heat coordinator, who made sure you were in the right heat;
3. The lane coordinator, who made sure your name matched with the lane assignment; and
4. The official that led you on deck, then double-checked that you were in the right lane.
To make this organization work, the meet directors set aside a clerk of course – a section of benches with 8 columns and 10 rows, where the rows represented the lane numbers and the columns were the heats. The swimmers were all pre-staged for their events here, which help keep the meet organized and ensured that no one missed their events.
The Nationals also enacted the overhead start rule, where the swimmers would stay in their lanes until the next heat had begun. This also kept things running efficiently. There were no breaks between events, and the only time there was an “open swim” was during the 20-minute lunch break. I did notice that not many swimmers decided to take advantage of the free swim.
For the long distance events, lap counters were optional, which was something quite new to me. The officials would blow a whistle when you were swimming your last 50. It actually worked out quite well – you just had to make sure it was your whistle that they were blowing.
In terms of officiating, there were 10 officials in place, four on each end of the pool and two on each side to make sure FINA rules were followed. Although the no false start rule applied, if there were mitigating circumstances the false start heat would be rescheduled after the last heat for that event.
And to the delight of the swimmers, most relays were placed as the final events for the day, which was a great way to end the competition on an energetic note. I really enjoy the unique setup for the Nationals – I thought it was sensible and well-organized, allowing the swimmer to concentrate on competing and having fun. The Nationals were taken quite seriously by the press, as well – every day there would be coverage in the newspapers and on television.
But the meet organization was nothing compared to the Australian people! The Aussies are the most polite and friendly swimmers I’ve met. It was really something, as Team USA, to be cheered on by my Australian competitors. By the end of the first day of competition, everyone knew my name and I had many photos taken of me (as the Team USA representative) so the clubs could post on their websites. I guess it’s not every day that someone flies 30-plus hours across the globe just to compete in a meet!
There were some very fast swimmers at the meet, who were interesting to talk to. The fastest swim was a 49-second 100m freestyle that brought down the house. One of the swimmers in the 80-89 men’sage group posted a fast 1:38 in his 100m free! I was interested in how some of the swimmers trained for the long distance events, and it was incredible to learn that most of their workouts were based on repeat 100 intervals sets. The swimmers seemed very dedicated to their coaches and teams. One of the fastest women told me that she drives over two hours to practice, stays overnight with family and then drives back home – and does this two times a week, all because of the great coaching she gets.
At the end of the meet, I was handed the Melbourne 2016 brochure with a “hope to see you there” comment, and I’m thinking about making the trip. Although I was only able to see for a week, I left having made new friends, experienced a different swim meet organization, and gained many happy memories. I would highly recommend the Australian Masters Nationals to anyone wanting to travel and compete under great conditions!
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ABOUT JULIA GALAN
Julia Galan headshot, PhotoJulia Galan is a lifelong competitive swimmer and a USA Swimming and U.S. Masters Swimming coach. Julia’s passion for the sport, for coaching and for writing led to the creation of Swimspire, a coaching and swimming inspiration source geared towards athletes of all levels and goals.