River City Rapids

And for those of you able to do them, there are some extra, more slightly difficult rope techniques demonstrated.

Check out the information for our Meet on our Events & Results page.

Nominations are due Thursday 2nd Feb 2012.

We are looking forward to seeing lots of clubs and plenty of great swimming on the day.

Apparently it’s been pretty hot in Brisbane while we have been freezing in Thredbo. We had a top of 11 degrees today, with snow falls above 1600m expected tomorrow (we’re at around 1300m).
Dale has been sending me all the training results and most people have been putting in the hard work, which is great to see.
I’m back for Saturdays session, so it will be good to see the improvements people have made over the last two weeks. To those swimmers racing on the weekend, remember to focus on the process ! A good outcome is only possible when you put together a good race. AND, it doesn’t mean you can miss Monday morning training… So if I miss you on Saturday I will see you on then.

Dedicated swimmers taking an ice bath in the Thredbo River.

Just a reminder for all seniors to make sure they book a time to have a talk with me regarding their goals (training and racing) this week or next. See the whiteboard and choose a time slot. The senior and intermediate squads are to be restructured mid January and it’s important that everyone is placed into the most appropriate squad to meet their goals and commitment. This can’t happen unless you let me know what these are.

This Friday is the annual 100×100′s. At this stage I’m not encouraging our swimmers to attend. Training has been ramped up this week (and the next two) and I think a 10km session is likely to increase the risk of injuries for not much benefit. If you really want to do the 10k session then come and see me please. The Opens will be doing a gym session that morning, while all others will have that morning off. If you have been doing all the sessions this week you should need it!

Well the last two days got the better of me. I did plan to write up results but after 12 hour sessions that plan went out the window when I collapsed into my recliner in front of TV!
Which doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot to report on in this two last sessions…
Thursday saw our medal tally move to 20 with Calypso bagging two more with a Silver in the 100 Bst and a Bronze in the 400 Fst. These were two tough races as the 400 was a very close race with silver and bronze separated by tenths of seconds. The 100 Bst wasn’t long after and Calypso managed her second PB of the night – 13s in the 400 and 0.5s in the Bst. Callum showed us that his 2s PB in he heat swim of the 100 Bst wasn’t a fluke by repeating the time and coming out with a Silver. Another very well put-together race with a nicely controlled front end – not easy in a final at States. Lauren was the other finalist for the night in the 200 Fst. She went out nearly a second slower in the first 100 for the final compared to her heat… But came home 2s faster in the last 100 to do a 2s PB. Another very good performance.
Other PB’s for the night were: Danilo 100 Fly (2s), Molly 100 Bst (2s), Christian 100 Bst (1.5s), Ben 100 Bst (1.5s), Nimue 100 Bk (1s), Connor 100 Bk (4s), Kelly 100 Bk (1s), Mary 100 Bk (0.5s), Jackson 100 Bk (2.5s). That’s a lot of PB’s! Well done to all swimmers for a great day of racing.
The club was still ranked 10th, however Clayfield and Albany Creek were closing in on us with some big sessions in the last few days.

Last Day….
A big day with 17 events, eight finalists and… Five medals! Some very nice stats!
Calypso kicked off the nights action with a gold in the 400 IM – you’d think she would be getting tired by now but after small PB in the morning she dropped another 7s in the evening. Not to be outdone Lauren raced a great 200IM to do a 1s PB and grabbed a silver. Lauren’s not really a 200IMer however she put together four very good laps and ended up with a very respectable time. Nice job Lauren. Next up was Dan who ended up with a gold in the 100 Bst – Dan was hoping to beak the record… Pressure can be a wonderful thing and can bring out the very best in you, however it can also result in atypical behavior. Dan normally races his Bst very well with amazing length, but in this race rated up too high and ended up missing the record finishing 1s off his PB. I know you’ll learn from this one Dan and will put the lesson to good use to break some records in later races (to add to your 200!). Calypso went in to the 100 Bk as hot favourtie and in her 12th event doe he meet did a 3s PB to win the gold. Toby was our last medalist with a super fast last 50 in the 200 Fst. Toby has a very confident style of racing and this was nearly his undoing as he relaxed the middle 100… To everyone else (except Toby) he was out of the race but with a 29.3 last lap moved through the field to snatch silver!
With three golds and two silvers this was our biggest night of medals for the meet. We had three ther finalists with Ben swimming a great 100 Bk and doing a 1s PB, Dan backing up in the 100 Fst, and Brooky swimming into the final from first reserve position to go a PB and ended up 5th Qlder!
Other PB’s were: Nimue 100 Bst (1s), Danilo 100 Bst (2s), Conor 100 Bst, and Jarek in the 200 Bst (3s).

Swimmer of the meet would have to go to Calypso with 14 events, (12 individuals and 2 relays), 13 Finals and 10 medals. The only final she missed was the 100 Fst and the only medals were the 100 Fly and 200 Fst. She ended up with Age Champion – very well deserved! Well done Clyps.

I must say that Dale also did a huge job this week. He kept things going at Somerville and then attended most of he sessions at Chandler. He was a great help with the swimmers and his relaxed and friendly attitude helped a lot of swimmers with their nerves through the week.

And the final numbers…. 24 swimmers competed in 100 events, made 41 Finals, won 25 Medals and 1 Age Champion. Those are amazing stats! Two in five swims made finals. If you made a final you had more than a 50% chance of winning a medal with one in four of all events winning medals. This is an extraordinary conversion rate – you guys are definitely doing something right in the water!

Thank you to all parents who made it through the week AND kept their swimmers happy and relaxed. It was a real pleasure to be on pool deck with such a great group of swimmers.

Thanks to Adrienne it looks like we have most things ready to go for our Xmas breakup at Wet’n'Wild on Saturday. We do have a BBQ going with sausages and pancakes, and drinks. However with 125 people signed in to go it might pay to bring a little of your own as well. We do have the BBQ area booked out so there’s plenty of cooking plates available.

We all need to be there at the gates in a group by 10am. We have to enter as a group, otherwise you will have to pay as an individual. Remember also that children need to be supervised for the whole day.

Looks like its going to be a nice sunny day, so bring the sunscreen and the blow-up floaties!

It was a busy and long day with RC swimmers competing in the first and the last heat of the Fifth session. By the end of end of the night our swimmers had swum to six finals and three more medals, bringing the total to 17 for the meet so far.
Calypso once again started the ball rolling with a Silver in the 200 Fly with a 6s PB – this brings her total to 6 medals so far… All with PB’s. Only two days left Clyps and then you can sleep for the whole day if you like! Lauren also continued her Backstroke streak with a Gold in the 100, also in a new PB. With no more Bk I’m sure Lauren will be starting to focus on those 200′s now! I know she has a soft spot for the 200 Fst and IM. Callum finished the medal set with a Bronze in the 100 Fst with a very smart time of 1.00.6 – a 4s PB and a very well swum race. Callum is fast becoming the surprise of the meet with his relaxed per-race attitude and well-put-together finals.
Other finalists were Leesy in the 200 Fly (I’m sure with more practice you’ll even start to enjoy that event Leesy); Ben in the 100 Fst after a nice 2s PB in the morning; Brooky in the 100 Bst – Brooky hit a PB in the finals after nearly two years. With a fourth place this is definitely a good sign for the rest of the season Brooky.
Other PB’s for the day were Nimue in the 200 M (7s), Danilo in the 200IM (2s), Molly in the 100 Fst (1s), Toby in the 400 Fst (4s), and Wei-Kin in the 100 Bst (2s).

River City remained in 10th spot at the beginning of the night with Clayfield just behind us. We’re going to need all the points we can get to hold that position until Day 7. Just a quick well done to all the parents of our competitors who are traveling in and out of Chandler every day. It’s great to see all the swimmers getting down to pool deck with heaps of time to spare for the warm-ups. And most of them with smiles on their faces too! With 17 of our swimmers racing on Friday, the challenge is on to keep them smiling now…

Here is the flyer for the Junior & Intermediate Squad Training Camps.

Junior and intermediate swim camp 2012

A little quieter today with only six events with RC swimmers – though we did stack the 14 years 100 Fst with seven swimmers. There were three medals won today – Calypso collected two of them with a Bronze in the 800m Fst (17s PB) and a Gold in the 200 Bk (3s PB). Calypso is in fire this week and doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon. Toby finished the night with a Silver in a very close final in the 100 Fst (0.5s PB). This was a great race and well worth the wait! It was also fantastic to see so many RC supporters cheering Toby on at the end of the night. A great job guys!

Other finalists were Hannah in the 200 Bst (4th) and Ben in the 200 Bk. We had some excellent races today – very good splits with people controlling their front-end and coming home very well. Ben was a great example when he went out half a second slower in the first 100 of his 200 BK final compared to his morning heat … And went on to drop his second 100 by 3.6s to go 3s quicker. Hannah, Toby and Calypso also all went slower in the first half of their races in the final to all go much quicker overall. I’m not suggesting you go out slow!… Just controlled!

Other PB’s today were Kelly and Mary in the girls 100 Fst and Jarek and Wei-Kin in the boys. It was great to see Jarek drop his time by so much (2s) as he has been training very consistently throughout the winter. To go a 58 is a credit to his perseverance and attitude.

At the start of the night we had climbed one spot in the club rankings to be 10th and by the end of the night had secured 14 medals. Over half way through and with some big swims to come I’m fairly confident we can finish with those 20 medals… I’m even thinking a tenth position may be within our grasp… Maybe….

One Gold and three Bronzes from eight finals was the end result from last nights session. Calypso started the bling binge with a gold in the 200 IM with a 7s PB. Callum then went a similar PB to grab bronze in the next race in the same event. I’m impressed with the way Callum has come out fighting in his races – starting to show some mental toughness there Callum! I’m looking forward to seeing that in the training pool now. Hannah went an equal PB in the 100 Bst to get a Bronze. An excellent result considering she set that PB over two years ago! Year 11 & 12 is a tough time to improve your swimming so it’s very satisfying to see her get some solid training in and to get those results. Annalise also swam a very impressive race to get a bronze in the 100 Fly which was a 3s PB as well. Your fly looks fantastic Leesy – I bet you’re even looking forward to the 200…
Other finalists were Lauren in the 100 Back, Nick in the Open 100, Ben in the 200IM and Calypso in the 100 Fly.

Other swimmers to do PB’s on the day were Molly by 7s in the 200 IM and 2s in the 100 Fly (a great days swimming Molly), and Mary who went a 3s PB for the 200 Bk.

I must also apologise for missing Ben’s 3s PB in his 200 Bst yesterday – sorry Ben. It was also pointed out that several of our swimmers raced in the regional relays on Saturday. These were Ben and Daniel who won Gold in the Medley and Silver in the Fst, and Jackson who won a Silver in the Medley. Below is a picture of Ben and Dan with their relay medals.

River City was in 11th spot last night which is a fantastic effort! My (outcome) goals for the meet were top 15 club and 20 medals. With 11 medals so far we seem to be well on target to achieving both of those – ill even shout all State competitors an ice cream on Saturday at Wet’n'Wild if we get them!

Lastly, make sure you say hello to Dianne Green when you see her on pool deck. Dianne is one of the most decorated officials in Brisbane and is RC’s only Life Member. She is actually living at the pool for the week (no kidding) so if you see her, brighten her day up and say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ for her ongoing support to the club and to swimming.