Norths AUSSI Masters

We had another great year thanks to a membership base of 108 members, a dedicated team of volunteer coaches and an enthusiastic and hardworking committee. Having redefined our Mission Statement in 2007 we spent the early months of 2008 building on that momentum by working to update our Club’s Constitution. After a joint effort involving committee members, coaches and current and past presidents we settled on, and then the club voted in a new Club Constitution in early September. The most visible change is that we’ve officially changed our name to North Sydney Masters Swimming Club and most importantly we’ve put the club on a solid foundation to continue to evolve and prosper into the future.

A key element to our club is the training program at scenic North Sydney pool. Once again our hard working coaches Kevin Porter, Alvin Parr-Whalley, Stephen Badger, John Wynberg and Hiroto Homma did a fantastic job by providing challenging yet varied training sessions throughout the year. Not only that but they were very flexible and continued to offer sessions at Ian Thorpe Pool and Macquarie Uni Pool during July and August when North Sydney was closed for refurbishment. Lastly on the training front, our Friday night training session which began as a trial in late 2007 has now become permanent. By now offering 4 sessions per week we have reduced the lane crowding we often experience through summer.

The second key element of our club is our social environment. In addition to numerous informal gatherings and the fun atmosphere provided in our training sessions, we had three main social gatherings in 2008. Firstly, our “Training Camp” weekend at Mollymook was a big success thanks to the organizing efforts of Bob Hayter and Alan Matthews. Secondly, we celebrated “Christmas in July” which was very capably hosted by Peter Murray. Thirdly, in mid-December we celebrated Christmas together as a club with a party organized in King’s Cross which was very well attended and enjoyed by all.

The final key element of the club is our successful participation in numerous pool and ocean swimming competitions. Once again our own sprint carnival in mid-February was a smashing success thanks to the tireless efforts of Meet Director Louise Weaver and her large team of volunteers. This and the State Relay carnival were our most well-attended pool competitions. We had six individual swimmers achieve World Top Ten age group rankings including Louise Stevenson, Isla Hale, Christina Echols, David Lovelace, Simon Ho and Alan Godfrey. This and the 9 North Sydney relay teams who also made the list, meant that in terms of global rankings 2008 was our best year ever! In the ocean we had up to 30 members compete in individual swims and have had multiple individual age group winners and place getters at a number of swims around Sydney and Australia. Of particular note was Mike Ketchen who completed a solo crossing of Rottnest in early 2009. The enthusiastic participation of our members was due in large part to the joint efforts of our Pool Captains Christina Echols and Hiroto Homma and our Open Water Captain Colin Hannah.

North Sydney Masters Swimming Club is lucky to have so many members willing to donate their time to help run the club. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to have served as president for my 2^nd year and I’m happy to report that 2009 looks set to be another great year!

David Lovelace

President

What's New

August 19, 2003: Now you can read club email online. Use the 'Email List' link above and use your email address to access the club email list.