Swimmers duel at Leongatha

FAMILY and club loyalties were put aside in the pool on Sunday, with all swimmers divided up into four teams of equal ability for the “Duel in the Pool” at Leongatha Splash. 

Siblings and parents donned coloured caps as well as colourful clothing for their teams and raced each other. 

There were more than 100 swimmers from the seven Gippsland clubs competing. 

Competitors competed in 50m races in all four strokes, as well as some novelty events, such as the butterfly kick 50m and the mixed order Individual Medley. 

One of the most popular for the crowd to watch was the skins event, where the selected eight swimmers raced 25m and the slowest from each heat was eliminated until there was just two left. 

There was a lot of cheering as friends became fierce rivals to try to bring the points home for their team. 

The other popular event was the final one, the 10 x 50m Relay, which saw one swimmer from each age group compete for the team. 

Teams chose their order, so that at times an 8-year-old maybe doing their leg against a 16-year-old. 

The result for the day was decided in this final event with the Red team bringing home the relay win which meant they were the champions for the day. 

The focus of the day was increased involvement for the younger swimmers who are still learning how to race and they were able to do so in a pool that is so familiar to them. 

The atmosphere was one of happiness and fun and all the young swimmers went home excited about being a part of the sport. 

A raffle was also drawn, with the winners of the Blue Salt necklace: P. Perczyk, Inverloch Air BnB accomodation: G Cook and $300 RACV voucher: G. Perry.