QMM Relay Team: Genelle Wilson, Todd Robinson, Colette Southam and Scott McKeon
Miami Masters News
We’ve had a great start to the year with the successful running of our Swim Meet in February. So many of our members worked to make our meet come together, and it helps to set our club up for the coming year.
The biggest current issue for 2019 and beyond is what’s happening with the rebuild at the Pizzey Park swim complex. We knows it’s all happening and we’ll be losing the old pool but we’re just speculating about the time frame and how it will affect our training arrangements and planning our 2020 meet. Members of our Management Committee have been in discussion with the Gold Coast Council and some light is emanating from the process.
Our numbers are building and we’re up to 111, which is quite exceptional for so early in the year. Thanks to Marg Flanagan for her work on the attendance rolls for training which has allowed us to monitor what’s happening with the training sessions we offer. Our job now is to get most of those members, whether new, newish or long time, to come to our training sessions and compete in meets.
Miami Swim Meet 9 Feb 2019
This was Miami’s chance to rekindle our passion for February meets. Traditionally we have always held our meet at the end of February and have attracted punters from near and far. Somehow, circumstances have meant that we’ve skipped a few years because of National and State obligations.
Despite a fairly late start and realisation that there was much to organise, the Committee managed to get its act together and go through the process of organising a successful day. Judging from the general feeling around the place, it was a success; we saw some good swimming, everyone was well watered and fed, we put a few dollars in the club’s pockets and there were no apparent serious hitches.
A highlight of the day was listening to Summer, a student from Miami SHS, who gave up her Saturday to come and get the meet started with her rendition of the National Anthem. It was very much appreciated by all and thank you Summer.
One thing Miami seems to do well is our raffles, and it’s always a real treat when you win. So we must thank all our friends and members who donated to our carnival, either as sponsors or with gifts for the raffles or food for our tuck shop. A special thank you must go out to Garry Field for his sponsorship, advertising and providing music for the occasion from his radio station, 94.1 FM.
M.S. Swim-a-thon Nerang Pool 24th Feb 2019
Sunday the 24th of Feb was a most enjoyable day at the fabulous Nerang Pool for the Queensland MS Society’s annual fundraiser. The organisers do a most professional job in attracting a diverse group of swimmers who then round up the sponsors. It actually goes for 12 hours but our group of Miami swimmers managed a few hours and were able to pass on quite a deal of cash to the Society. Colette and Gordon have a good friend, Thomas, who’s afflicted with MS, so there was something personal about their involvement. We often see him at the Miami Pool doing laps, so perhaps it’s personal for us too.
We managed to get a happy group of us to make the trek out to Nerangatang territory but it’s very sleepy on Sunday morning. The aim of the exercise then is to see how many laps we can do. It gets a bit competitive when the fastest swimmers see how many laps they can complete in an hour. Great to see new member, Megan Baxter, in the Hour of Power relay and swimming like a champ. It was also great to see Jay Doo with his two young daughters, Ava and Isabelle, all swimming like champions.
It’s wonderful being there with such diverse groups of people. I guess we’re fortunate because swimming is our sport so we have the necessary skills. Some of the others had them, but some didn’t; yet despite that, they still seemed to have a really good time and pleased to be doing something for a most worthwhile cause. In the end, MS Qld made almost $12,000 from the day, while our group Miami Masters and Friends of Thomas collected just over $800.00.
Queensland Top 10 Fastest Swims 2018
GEORGIE HARTLEY: 400 Free 4th
LISA ROWLANDS: 30 mins Free 5th, 30 mins Breast 1st.
CLAIRE REABURN: 400 Free 6th.
KAREN LYONS: 800 Free 10th.
TRACY BRENNAN: 400 Breast 7th.
TROY DOYLE: 400 Free 7th, 800 Free 6th.
JAY DOO: 200 Free 10th, 800 Free 9th, 1500 Free 10th, 400 Breast 3rd.
OWEN LAWRENCE: 400 Free 10th.
GREG BRENNAN: 400 Free 5th, 800 Free 4th.
ROBERT YANG: 400 Breast 3rd.
JOHN BONNING: 400 Free 9th.
KEVIN BLAIR: 100 Free 9th, 200 Free 10th, 400 Free 7th.
PETER REABURN: 400 Free 10th.
PETER BAILEY: 1500 Free 9th.
PHILLIP ZAEZA: 800 Free 7th, 30 mins Free 3rd.
ROBERT FINDLAY: 400 Breast 7th.
Endurance 1000
It is sincerely hoped that these excellent results will encourage you all to participate in at least SOME of our endurance swims this year. A very significant part of Masters Swimming is the Endurance 1000 Program. The aim of this is to encourage members to go beyond customary training to complete a set of long distance swims over 400 metres, 800 metres, 1500 metres, 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 1 hour. Free, back and breast are done over all distances but fly and IM only for 400 and 800. There is always a group of us here from 7.00 on Friday mornings and from 90 minutes before the start of training on Saturday afternoons. We have reserved the first Sunday morning of each month at 9.30 as well. We’d also like to incorporate a longer timed swim as part of the Saturday training session more regularly.
Nationals
This year the National Titles were held in Adelaide and sadly we only managed a team of four. It’s obviously better patronised when it’s closer to home, so let’s hope we get more next year. Fine weather and a spectacular venue made for good times, both in and out of the water. Lindy Salter and Hobe Horton came home with medals in all of their events, seven and six respectively. Helen Morley won two medals. David Salter finished in the top seven in his three events.
Team totals were three golds, seven silvers, and five bronzes. Hobe and Helen each took out the gold in the 200 fly while Lindy won the 200 IM. Sadly Miami had no relay teams this year. Quite a few swimmers from other teams wondered why QMM’s participation levels were so low. Hopefully we will have a much better showing in Sydney next year.
StateChampionships
Thirty nine members of Miami ventured up to Chandler for this year’s State Titles. Some came up on a bus each day while others braved the hard slog up the M1. Unfortunately, the male to female imbalance meant problems for the female and mixed relays, but despite that, our team still managed to come in third.
Congratulations to QSM and QUQ on your fine achievement, but we can take heart in both our individual and relay performances. Alan Carlisle, Todd Robinson, David Boylson and Denise Robertson all managed to break State Records while three of Todd’s and one of Denise’s were actually National records too. We were certainly pleased with our performances in the relays. Particularly pleasing was the fact that our ‘gun’ swimmers were certainly able to ‘lift’ some of our teams up to the heights.
