Darwin hosts the 2024 Masters Swimming Australia National Championships
Records were broken and personal bests smashed as the NT hosted the Masters National Championships. Check out all the photos.
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Hundreds gathered for the final day of the Masters National Championships as competitors switched the pool for the Waterfront Lagoon as part of the open water swim.
Records and personal bests were smashed in the pool over the weekend at Parap as swimmers from across the country and of all age groups took on the water.
Jeanette Brits was the standout in the pool breaking world records in the 800m freestyle and 200m freestyle for her 60-64 age group.
Patrick Galvin broke some national records for his 90-94 age group in the 100m and 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke.
The Darwin Stingers had a large group of swimmers across the events and showed just what the NT can do in the water.
Adrian Tonkin was among the first Darwin Stingers to cross the line in the 3.6km open water event, which he was using as a training run for an upcoming 10km swim in Bali.
“I prefer to swim in open water, the longer the better,” he said.
“They’ve done an outstanding job of this event, normally we would have 30 people but we have 196 from across the country, and from there we’ll hopefully be able to host again.
“A lot of swimmers have put a lot of work into their performances over the past four or five days, and everyone has been pretty happy with their results.”
Fellow Stinger Rebecca Mather-Brown was another standout in the lagoon finishing among the first in the 1.8km event.
“It’s so nice to race different people from different backgrounds and of different abilities, it’s been great,” she said.
“Open water swimming is my baby, I prefer it to the pool, but you’ve got to get in the pool to keep fit for this.
“There was a lot more people out there than normal, but that’s what the big guns do so it was great to have this so we could play and pretend we are big guns.
“It’s wonderful to have so many people here, the older groups in particular are really inspiring, they’re super fit, healthy and having a great time, which is fantastic.”
ALL THE PHOTOS
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