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Lightning inside the pool and out at Shine Shield final

By Katharyn Brine | February 1, 2016 at 10:41 pm 0 Comments

SWIMMING: There were lightning displays inside the pool lanes and out, at the final round of the Shine Shield in Binalong on Saturday.

The 50th Anniversary event was forced to finish early due to storm activity and the danger of lightning in the area, but not before a few lightning-fast contestants made a big splash into the record books and had fun on the jumping castle, creating balloon art and investing in a glitter tattoo in between bouts.

Yass swimmers during their parade before the competition kicked off at Binalong on Saturday.

The total number of swimmers reached 196, the biggest the carnival has seen in a long time.

The Yass club only just scraped in by one point from second position to win the honour of taking home the shield on the day, with 1446 points.

Binalong finished second with 1445 points. Jugiong tallied 1134 points while Harden came home with 1031 in fourth place.

Yass also took out the relay event, coming from third place behind Jugiong on 154, Binalong second with 132 and Yass only 10 points behind that. Harden entered the fourth round relay with 81 points.

Binalong relay results were: Yass first on 44 points, Binalong second with 30, Harden notching up third place with 34 and Jugiong 4th with six points.

The first leg of the competition started in Harden on January 13.

Jasmine Davis, Shayla Anderson and Rhiannon Davis provided some very entertaining races as they were neck and neck is each of their events swimming some big PB’s along the way.

Another fierce rivalry emerged between brothers Mick and Craig Wilkinson. In Mick’s pet event breaststroke, the clock was the only thing that would determine who the winner was.

Yass swimmer Thomas Carey broke a 21-year record in the 50m freestyle. He clocked 29.84 seconds, breaking the previous record by 1.56 seconds set in 1995 by H. Crisp.

Binalong swimmers Olivia McColl and Alerya Brayshaw take a breather in between races.

For the second round on January 16, swimmers went to Jugiong, where three more Yass swimmers smashed records at this meet; Bronte Anderson in the 9-10’s 25m fly, Tom Girdler in the 13-14’s 25m fly and Ben Wylie in the Seniors back.

Yass hosted the third round in perfect weather conditions on January 20.

An update of records covering the past several years revealed a host of swimmers who deserved the title of ‘record-breaker’, the most recent including Maya Smith (2014) 11-12 years 50m Breast – 42.57, Ash Fernandez (2014) 11-12’s 25m Breast – 21.77, Alice Henman (2014) 8 yrs 25m Fly – 28.41, Tim McPhillips (2014) 8 yrs 25m Free – 21.02 and Darcey Bush (2015) 9-10’s 25m Free – 16.40.

Points tallied at the end of round three revealed Binalong in first place with 1266 points, Yass second with 1200, Jugiong third with 1180 points and Harden rounding out the competition with 881.

Jade Schultz, of Yass, swimming the backstroke.

Shine Shield founder Buster and Marg Shine’s daughter, Ann Cooke, helped Yass Valley mayor Rowena Abbey cut the 50th anniversary celebratory cake cutting after the fun and games began at Binalong at 3pm.

All swimmers participated in a procession around the pool to kick start the final leg of this year’s carnival.

Thank you to all the parents and the volunteers for participating in such a community-focused event, without you there wouldn’t be a carnival.