Meet goes swimmingly

By Gavin Staindl
THE Casey Tigersharks held their inaugural qualification meet at Casey Race on Sunday in what is set to become an annual event.
After successful age tournaments during the year, elevating the club to the third best junior club in the state, the Tigersharks were finally given the all clear by Swimming Victoria to host the qualification event.
As it was an official meet for qualification into the Victorian Age State Championships in December the amount of work required from the Tigersharks staff was more than usual.
“It is a huge operation to run the event … but it was run well,” coach Ben Hiddlestone said.
“There is a lot more pressure for things to go right.
“It’s not like the encouragement meets where you’re just holding a stop watch, handing out lollies and no one gets disqualified. There is a lot more to this type of event.”
But such was the efficiency of the meet that Hiddlestone found himself kicking back and enjoying a chat with guests without dealing with the frenetic chaos on the pool deck.
“Nothing went wrong at all,” he said.
“There were about 160 swimmers and 120 families and they were helping out and the assistant coaches also took care of a lot.
“It is a big effort, and a lot of knowledge by the organisers was needed,” Hiddlestone said.
There were 505 entries with entrants coming from as far as Traralgon and Geelong to participate in the event, but despite these numbers, Hiddlestone expected a better turn-out.
“We didn’t have as many as we would have like because we couldn’t start advertising the meet earlier … but we’re hoping for more next year,” Hiddlestone said.
The Tigersharks had to wait for the slippery pool decks at Race to be fixed by safety authorities and approved by the council before they could begin promoting the event.
But according to club president Terry Gleeson the turn-out was positive.
“We only had a short time to advertise but it worked out well,” Gleeson said on Sunday.
Of the 160 Tigershark swimmers about 40 per cent qualified for the Victorian Age State Championships with another 15 per cent on the fringe.
Three more qualification events remain for swimmers to have another chance to qualify.