Brian Hoepper
There’s a flood of cliches swirling around the Noosa Aquatic Centre at the moment.
‘Incredible feat of endurance’ and ‘punching way above our weight’ are delivered with an emphatic fist pump.
And deservedly so! For the eighth year in a row, Noosa Masters swimmers have won the coveted Vorgee National Endurance 1000 trophy.
The statistics are impressive. Noosa’s 58 swimmers made up less than four per cent of all competitors, but amassed almost nine per cent of the total points nationally. With 18,681 points, Noosa topped the list of 128 clubs.
At the elite level, only 55 swimmers around the nation achieved the top possible score of 1005 points, and seven of them (more than 12 per cent) were from Noosa.
The competition is titled Endurance for good reason.
Over a year, swimmers complete 62 swims, racing against the stopwatch to meet ambitious targets. Events ranged from 400 metres to swims of 60 minutes, including the fearsome 800 metres butterfly – swum five times!
Behind the scene, Endurance co-ordinator Jane Powell is supported by a team of watchful deckies.
Numerous club members wield the stopwatches each week, while Endurance recorder Tricia Chalmers handles thousands of computer entries.
Jane, Tricia and the team are already ‘on deck’ for 2022, aiming to make it nine in a row.
