Hervey Bay Masters Xmas Swim Meet
The Hervey Bay Masters held their Christmas Short Course Swim Meet at the Hervey Bay Aquatic Centre on 7 December 2024.
Before the commencement of our Christmas Short Course Swim Meet in our newly refurbished 25 metre pool, we had certainly turned on the weather for the 111 guests competing at our meet with a picture-perfect day.
17 MSQ clubs travelled to beautiful Hervey Bay from north, south and west to compete with us on such a wonderful sunny day. Club members attended from as far south as Miami Masters (Gold Coast) North from the Rum City Masters (Bundaberg) and even as far west as Ipswich. Many club members turned up in their special Xmas attire, ready to race as fast as possible with a Christmas twist once the Santa, reindeer and elf suits were shed!!
To get proceedings underway our meet was officially opened by Cr Sara Diana Faraj – division 9. Cr Sara was recently elected as the local representative for the division where our beautifully refurbished pool is located, and we thought it appropriate that she be given the honour to open our meet. Thank you for your time, Cr Sara.
The 20 events we had on our program, plus a fun Xmas relay at the end of the meet, ranged in distance from 25 metre sprints up to and including all the 200 metre swims as well. All the events flowed like clockwork throughout the day, thanks to the amazing MSQ team of dedicated officials, Lori, Jane and Lorrin. Their professionalism, expertise and wealth of knowledge was invaluable and was very much appreciated by all who were in attendance. Thank you so very much.
At the conclusion of our Christmas themed meet, a food feast from our culinary cooking skilled Humpbacks were on offer for everyone. As we all know how hungry one becomes after a swimming competition, and this was well received by all the famished athletes, volunteers and supporters alike following the day’s events of truly inspiring swimming.
Whilst everybody was relaxed and in good Christmas spirits after the meet with fully replenished bodies, we began our awards presentation. Awards were presented to the first, second and third placegetters in each age group with the overall points being tallied up for the best large club average trophy (8 or more swimmers from a team) and the best small club trophy (2-7 swimmers from a team). The large club average trophy was awarded to The Hervey Bay Masters (finally!! Lol). The small clubs award was presented to 2 teams this year which could not be separated on points, Cotton tree Masters and Belgravia Masters sharing the honours. (As we did not anticipate this result, we ordered another trophy straight away!!) A huge congratulations to all who swam with commitment, determination and passion, and to all the age group placegetters and the major club award winners. Without your valued support our meet would not have been the successful day it was.
The Hervey Bay Humpbacks would also like to extend a huge thank you to the Hervey Bay Swimming Club for the loan of their new Dolphin timing system which worked to perfection, as well as the junior club members who graciously gave up their own time to assist us with the timekeeping duties. We would also like to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who also gave us valuable assistance. Also, Our Christmas meet would not have been as brilliant as it was without the timeless hours and effort put in behind the scenes from our committee and all the Hervey Bay Humpback members performing various tasks leading up to our meet and in doing so helping to create a very successful day. A heart felt thank you to everyone involved.
Looking forward to seeing you all next year for the next Hervey Bay Humpbacks swim meet in 2025!
Linda Hodkinson – QHB Meet Director
Meet Results:
