Bondi to Bronte

Number 2 of the Ocean Swims Series and a few other events

The main event of the weekend was Bondi to Bronte but before we get to that a few squad members have snuck in a couple of sneaky events beforehand. Aside from just swimming, a few of the guys do that thing called a triathlon with some choosing to do very big ones.

Mike Flynn from Lane 1 competed and completed the Busselton Ironman on Sunday in a very respectable 13hours and 34 secs. Not bad for a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run. Congratulations Mike – Huge Effort!

Nicholas Smith (Lane 1) competed in Phuket and finished in 3 hours 48 mins – a 12 min pb with about 2mins off his swim leg – we like that.

Kate Rowe also from Lane 1 competed and completed the Phuket ½ Ironman in 6 hrs 17 mins for 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run and placed 1st in her age group – another great effort

North Curl Curl had their annual swim / swim run event on Sat with Jenny Weinstock doing the swim and a few multi-skilled people doing the swim run thing – Well done to Steve White, Stuart Thomas, Gavin Stringfellow, Greg Pride and Sass Dominquez

Now to the Biggy –Bondi to Bronte

VLADSWIM teams kicked some butt. We had entered 4 teams but only 3 were eligible as renowned swimmer (not bike rider) Iain Melluish stacked his BMX on Friday night and has hurt his arm. He turned up on Sunday but in a sling not in his colourful speedo’s and so VLADSWIM A was out of the running (and we would have won too). So it was up to the others. VLADSWIM B (Damien, Colleen, Dennis and Lawrence) stepped up and won the 150+ with VLADSWIM D (Brian, Wayne, Ali and Rod) not far behind to come in 2nd in the same division. VLADSWIM C (Hannah, Tori, Sal and Dom) weren’t to be outdone and came 2nd in the 90+ category – well done kiddies.

Our Individual place getters were: Louise Stevenson – 1st, Barb Marcinkova – 1st, Colleen Mallon – 1st, Damien Scales – 2nd, , Belinda King – 2nd, Tori Gorman – 2nd, Sal Panto – 2nd, Hannah Donaldson –3rd and Brian May – 3rd.

Below are the times for all the squad members that we could find – again we apologise if we have missed you.
Justin Hanby 32:06, Louise Stevenson 34:12, Colleen Mallon 36:41, Damien Scales 36:49, David Oakley 37:05, Brian May 37:12, Barbora Marcinkova 37:48, Belinda King 38:05, Hannah Donaldson 38:13, Daniel Boardman 38:13, Tori Gorman 38:22, Sal Panto 39:05, Alistair Newmarch 39:25, Wayne Arthur 39:48, Tamera Lang 40:59, Dennis O’Regan 41:09, Dominik White 42:11, Lawrence Stubbs 42:12, Nicola Davidson 42:32, Lindsay Moller 43:25, Simon Tilley 43:28, Rod Hinchcliff 44:05, Michael McKelvie 44:39, Gavin Stringfellow 45:36, Emma Starritt 45:51, Marty Filipowski 46:05, Neil Breen 47:25, Warren McKenzie 48:12, Evan Stilwell 49:23, Paul Faulkner 49:40,Stephen Ellis 50:10, Jerry Murphy 50:31, Alice McClure 50:33, Simon Smith 51:02, Bel Gorman 51:41, Michael Lecouteur 53:28, Annalyse McLeod 55:17, Rose Levien 55:47, Victoria Fairchild 55:52, Jimmy Casey 56:34, Gordon Pettigrew 57:32, Rozanne Green 58:14, Doug Hayter 58:19, Matt Starr 1:01:16, Sass Dominguez 1:01:34, Stuart Thomas 1:02:18, David Neville 1:02:27, Michael Mellon 1:05:44, Nicole Linton 1:09:14, Noreen Foley 1:17:52.

A grand total of 50 swimmers – well done everyone as it was a tough looking swim (I watched) and a lot harder than last year so don’t feel that you have swum badly if you were slower. You haven’t.

This weekend is the time trial at Boy Charlton on Sat, Bilgola on Sun and VLADSWIM Christmas Party on Sunday afternoon. Hope to see you all there!

Cheers
Charm (Vladswim Team)