Swimming: Gunnedah hosts regional swim league series

Introduced last year and branded as "swimming revolutionized" the series pits teams of 10-20 swimmers against each other in match style racing across a range of both individual and team events from the regular to novelty like combination medley (where two strokes are split over the race distance) and brace relay (2 x 25m, 2 x 50m).

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Encompassing junior and senior divisions, unlike regular carnivals swimmers don't pre-enter events. There are also no times, with points awarded on a place basis, and racing is continual with only 15-20 seconds between races.

"It's exciting and it's fun and it's quick," Rangers' team coach John Hickey said.

Sunday's carnival followed meets at Gunnedah on June 6 and May 23, with the best performed team over the three progressing - pending COVID restrictions - on to swim at Newcastle on September 11 and 12.

Hickey's Rangers side claimed the honours. The team included Lachlan Davey, Tahlia Smith, Angus Hobson, Chelsea Rossler, Tahni Bush, Lachlan Gurney, Audrey Hannaford, Zacheriah Akinyemi, Katie Spinks, William Jansen, Oliver Pollard, Jaxon Gray, Gareth Rossler, Jacob Smith, Eugenie Goddard, Armani Todd, Molly Ramien, Liam Smith, Joshua Spinks and Hannah Akinyemi.

It was a bit of a husband and wife battle with Hickey's wife Donna in charge of the opposing Angels side.

Also the Gunnedah club coach, Hickey said it was good for the swimmers to get some competitive swimming.

"Because of COVID we've got no races this winter. Country's (Country short course championships) been put back, state's (state championships) been put back," he said.

"We'd like to go to the next level and challenge."

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