NEARLY 50 Nyah Two Bays/Swan Hill swimmers were in action at Koondrook last Sunday.
The inclement winds that marked the day proved little inconvenience to NTBSH swimmers as they set about again proving themselves the dominant district club.
The 33m pool provided the backdrop for a series of events conducted over unfamiliar distances that included a 132m individual medley and races conducted over 99m and 66m.
The situation lent itself to some fierce competition between swimmers across a number of age groups.
This included some exciting head-to-head racing between Melbourne-based veterans and former country champion Jenni Swan and the club's fastest locally-based woman swimmer Tricia Sambrooks.
A series of tight tussles also ensued between rival eight-year-old swimmers Edward Robinson and Jun Kim who went stroke-for-stroke in each of their events.
The meet also brought out the best in some of the club's swimmers with Swan's seven-year-old daughter Sarah Harris, who appears to have all the attributes to go on to emulate her mother's successes in the pool, being among the club's best performed on the day.
NTBSH swim club victories came thick and fast throughout the afternoon with 13-year-old Luke Judd continuing his great run of form with wins in a total of five races.
Melissa Sambrooks, 13, showed signs she may be recapturing some of her old form with wins in all but one of the heavy program of events she took on.
Sambrooks' highlight was a closely contested victory in the open 33m breaststroke that earned her the bragging rights over her older sister Tricia.
Lara Judd, 9, confirmed her dominance of the nine-year-old age group with wins in three events which included a dominant breaststroke swim.
Edward Robinson performed well to win three events, and 11-year-old Olivia King looked strong in winning all four of her age-group events and placing third in the 13-years-and-under individual medley.
The friendly rivalry between 15-year-old swimmers Chelsie Hird and Kyra Bennet was a see-sawing affair in which Bennet took the honours in the individual medley and backstroke events.
Hird bounced back, however, to secure victories in the freestyle and breaststroke events, before Bennet confirmed her butterfly prowess in winning the fly in relatively comfortable style.
Of the club's improving swimmers, Natalia King, 13, stood out with some great PB performances, and Angus Collins, 7, displayed some good signs in winning each of his freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke races.
Collins' sister Amy, 10, also looks to be closing the gap on some of her faster rivals and wasn't far away in the 66m freestyle.
Despite a heavy program of events, Tanner Gleeson, 12, also performed well.
Always a highlight, the pool was awash with a higher than usual number of competitors in the "tadpole" event for young non-registered swimmers -- another sign that the future of the sport in the district looks good.
Looking ahead, nine of the club's fastest swimmers will make the trek to Melbourne this weekend for 50m races in the 2012 Victorian Sprint Championships.
The NTBSH team comprises Kyra Bennett, Claire Crawford, Josh Hodgson, Ryan Hodgson, Olivia King, Melissa Sambrooks, Tricia Sambrooks, Angus Verbeek and Karl Wilkins.
Verbeek was in sensational form last Sunday in Maryborough where he collected a medal haul of five gold and one silver.
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