Short break for the holidays

Just in case you were thinking about racing again this Saturday… please note that swim club is taking a break for the Christmas / New Year period. We’ll be back on Saturday the 16th of January in 2021 for the second half of the season (2021… I can’t believe we’re about to hit 2021. Where has my life gone?)

Thanks Santa and Perfetti Van Melle for the Chupa Chups

A big thanks to Santa for taking time out of his busy schedule to pop along to swim club last Saturday. All the kids appreciated your attendance.

The kids and a lot of adults also enjoyed the Chupa Chups. An even bigger thanks must go to the Hansen family and Perfetti Van Melle for donating the monster tin of 1000 Chupa Chups.

Squads are still running. Junior swimmers welcome at adult squads.

Junior and Adult squads are still running for those who want to keep training.

Junior squads will run until Thursday the 22nd and will resume on Tuesday the 5th of January.

Adult squads will run throughout the holiday period.

Junior swimmers who want to do some extra laps in preparation for school carnivals should feel free to join adult squads over the holidays.

Be sure to check pool opening times on public holidays.

Ashfield Amateur Swimming Club has confirmed they will host the 2021 Battle on the Bay Swimming Carnival on Saturday the 20th of February between 14:30 and 19:30 [Note: Date changed on 24 Dec 20].

The Battle on the Bay is a swimming carnival competing with neighbouring clubs in the bay area. It was started by Drummoyne Swimming Club back in 2010 and is fun way for everyone in our club to race against swimmers in other local clubs.

This will be a nice opportunity to check out the newly renovated Ashfield Pool and have another crack at becoming the best performing swim club in the area.

The Battle on the Bay is always a fun afternoon so be sure to save this date in your calendar.

More details to follow in the new year.

Dress in your festive best and join us for some Christmas fun this Saturday!

The children have been good this year and Santa is set to come out of hotel quarantine on Friday. If we’re lucky Santa will pay us a visit and dish out some Christmas Cheer!

Our swimming program this Saturday is as follows:

• 50m, 30m, 20m Breaststroke Championship
• 50m, 30m, 20m Freestyle
• 200m, 4x30m, 4x20m Freestyle

Don’t miss swim club this week. If you do… yule be sorry!

Thanks to John Coates AC

A special note of thanks to John Coates AC for attending swim club last week to hand out trophies and give us an update on the Tokyo Olympics.

Keep training Olympic trials are in mid June!

Championship Series – Week 2 Butterfly

This week we continue the Championship season, with the 50m Butterfly event. As with Freestyle last week for Championship races there are no handicap starts – everyone starts off “Go”. The fastest person in each age group will win the event.

To read more about the Championship events and racing format, click here.

Following the Butterfly Championship races we’ll get back to the handicap racing. This week the youngsters (under 10s) will be competing in the Molly Wark & Les Henry U/10 100m Freestyle handicap races (Week 2) and the not so young will be competing for the Over 35 Handicap points and bragging rights.

Following the 100m Freestyle races we’ll have the heats for the George Russell 400m Freestyle (Handicap). Note that everyone who currently has a 200m freestyle time is eligible to compete in the George Russell heats – no need for your 200m time to be less than 200 seconds, which is the normal entry criteria. If you haven’t swum a 400m race before, we will calculate your handicap time for the 400m heats based on your current 200m time. The final for this trophy event is the 23rd January 2021 leaving plenty of time to improve and give yourself a chance at the trophy.

Final 2019-20 Trophy and Medal Presentations

In between races we’ll continue our trophy and medal presentations to recognise the achievements of our swimmers in the 2019-20 season. This week we’ll be presenting to our older swimmers – U14 to Opens. We’ll also hand out trophies and medals to those younger swimmers that weren’t around last Saturday. Please refer to the post about trophies and medals for more information and note that we’ll be joined by a VIP presenter Mr John Coates AC President of the Australian Olympic Committee and Vice President of the International Olympic Committee.

Pool safety – kids pool is closed during swim club presently

Please note that the small children’s pool is closed off on Saturday mornings. Please ask your kids not to use the pool. The life guards have been asked by pool management to enforce this rule so please keep an eye on it.

On another note, the centre has been experiencing a large number of lane rope breakages this season. This is not due to anything we’ve done but in the interests of minimising damage to the facilities can you please encourage your kids not to play on the lane ropes when they have some free time between and after events.

This is a general reminder to all swimmers that member registration is open for Season 2020/21.

We’ve had good numbers register so far but need to close the gap between swimmers and members and we need all active swimmers to register. Registration fees go a good way to funding the Club’s activities, so please help us continue to provide a fun and positive environment for everyone by joining up as soon as you can.

Swimmers can join the Club for the first time or renew their membership at the Swimming NSW Swim Central portal: https://swimcentral.swimming.org.au.

NSW Active Kids vouchers can now be redeemed online in the registration process.

More information and instructions can be found on the Club’s Fees and Registration page.

We appreciate that Swim Central has been difficult to use in the past (that’s probably the most diplomatic thing to say about it…) and that it often takes more than one or two attempts to successfully register. If you have any issues or questions, please contact our Club Registrar, Michael Donnellan on registrar@drummoyneswimclub.com.au or mobile 0422 453 322.

Please note that swimmers must be registered in order to be eligible for awards and trophies at the end of the season. So, don’t cost yourself or your squid points. Register now!

This week we have another packed schedule of swimming.

Championship Series – Week 1

First up we have the first week of the Championship season, starting with the 50m Freestyle event. For Championship races there are no handicap starts – everyone starts off “Go”, so the fastest person in each age group will win the event. To read more about the Championship events and racing format, click here.

Point Score Handicap Events

Following the Championship event (which is always held first each Saturday), we will resume our point score handicapped races with 100m Backstroke Handicap.

The distance event this week is the 200m Individual Medley Handicap featuring the Finals of the Five Dock Rotary Perpetual Trophy event.

The finalists for the big race are as follows:

ID	Name
111	Phil HAYWARD
1470	Will BOLTON
1124	Xiomara VAN SCHAIK
1600	Tarek BHATTI
689	Joseph COLLEY
112	Joshua HAYWARD

Continuation of our 2019-20 Trophy and Medal Presentations

In between races we’ll continue our trophy and medal presentations to recognise the achievements of our swimmers in the 2019-20 season. This week we’ll be presenting to our younger swimmers – those aged U6 to U12 last season. Please refer to the post about trophies and medals for more information.

As many of you are aware EPIC Pizza have closed their Drummoyne Store. This is unfortunate on many levels – unfortunate for those working there who have lost their jobs, unfortunate for those of us who loved their Pizzas (the Leonardo Di Capricciosa was my favourite) and unfortunate for Swim Club because they have been a supportive sponsor for a few years now.

In light of this and due to scheduling conflicts for some swimmers we’ve decided to postpone the junior swimmer Pizza in the Park event that was to be held this Saturday evening.

We’ll reschedule another social event for later in the season.

Apologies to anyone who has to now change their plans.