Dazzling Darwin delivers delights at the 2024 MSA Nationals Championships

Report by Kylie Lane, Club President

Ten Viking swimmers wanted to ditch their fleecy jumpers and escape the chilly Canberra winter, to go to a place where the temperature is always warm. The 2024 MSA National Championships were held 3-7 May 2024 at the lovely Parap Pool in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Temperatures soared way into mid-thirty degrees, making it enticing to hop into the water to cool off.

This championship event had a bit of everything - the excitement of fast and close racing; with some of our swimmers carrying illnesses, and we were in awe of the opening ceremony synchronised swimming display.

Our small team of swimmers included Catherine Alexander, Katrina Burgess, Donna Campbell, Liz Daly, Kylie Lane, Christine Leary, Caz Makin, Elizabeth Merenda, Michael Peedom, and Kristi Russ who did us proud finishing 18th from 88 clubs. 

From a total of 63 individual events, we achieved 18 medals (eight gold, six silver, and four bronze).

We entered three relay teams and secured a gold and a silver medal. The relays are always exciting and fun events - both for swimming in and watching fellow teammates racing. Our women’s 200-239 age group blitzed the field and finished with smiles on their faces in the medley relay coming away with gold! The team consisted of: Elizabeth, Katrina, Kylie, and Caz. The same relay team also grabbed silver in the freestyle relay. Our 240+ age group relay consisting of Catherine, Christine, Donna, and Liz also swam their hearts out, giving the other teams a run for their money.

Six club records were broken or newly established as follows:

Michael: 100m, 400m and 800m Freestyle
Elizabeth: 200m Freestyle
Caz: 100m Freestyle
Christine: 200m Backstroke

The local Darwin Stingers club came out on top of the 88 competing clubs and Masters Swimming NT hosted a great championship event.

Shout outs to Donna Campbell and Ann Reid for their time on official duties and Pete Sharman who handed out the well-deserved medals on the medals table. Plus a big thank you to our team members for timekeeping - our club was noticed as being a club where everyone chipped in and did their part.

The 2025 National Championships will be held 8-12 April at MSAC in Melbourne.