Carnival Report : 2024 MSA National Championships - Darwin NT
Pool Competition – Parap Pool : 3rd to 6th May
Open Water – Darwin Waterfront Lagoon: 7th May
Australia’s tropical north, what a great location for a fantastic event. In contrast to cold and gloomy Sydney, Darwin was hot a 35C with barely a cloud in the sky.
The carnival had a bit of everything - the excitement of fast and close racing; we were in awe of the opening ceremony synchronised swimming display; we even had some blood in the water.
The NWG Team was made up of:
Helen Campbell, Julia Atkins, Bridget Cook, Pamela Dawes, Wendy Cooper
David Craig, Keith Bourdon, Graham Campbell, Tony Tooher, Stephen Hawkins, Gordon White, Anthony Gallagher, Paul Johnson & a cameo swim by Pat Birgan. We were also joined from NWS by Charmaine Groppler and Ray (who did not swim but spent many hours toiling in the hot sun as part of the team of officials).
In the pool competition we managed approximately 112 individual swims, with Charmaine our only competitor in the Open Water – who said we were afraid of crocs.
Gold medals were won by David Craig in the 50m Breaststroke and Gordon Whyte in the 50m Butterfly, both of whom featured in the Gold medal winning Men’s 280-319 4x50M Medley Relay comprising of Tony Tooher, Keith Bourdon, Gordon Whyte & David Craig.
500+ FINA Point swims were achieved by Stephen Hawkins (5), Gordon Whyte (3), Wendy Cooper(1) & Paul Johnson (1).
After four days of solid competition, in the race for the prestigious “Runners-up Club” trophy, Warringah missed out on a top 10 finish by only 2 points.
Congratulations to the Darwin Stingers who came out on top of the 88 clubs/countries that were competing. Congratulations to Masters Swimming NT for hosting such a great event. Also a big shout out to Bridget for organising the team dinner function and Anthony G for organising pretty much everything else.
Bring on the next National Championships at Melbourne 8-12th April 2025