Over 150 swimmers registered to contest the Cobar Yabbies Senior Men’s Swimming Club 50th Anniversary Carnival at the Cobar Memorial Swimming Pool on Saturday.
The 50th Anniversary Carnival was also combined with the Four Ways Swim, which is contested each year between the Cobar, Forbes, Nelson Bay and Gosford men’s swimming clubs.
All events, apart from the 50 metres Open Sprint, were handicapped events, with the winners being the swimmers who finish closest to their nominated times.
The opening event was the Presidents Race which was contested by 10 club presidents (and the Western Districts president).
In the Open carnival, Ian Goodman (Grafton) and Peter Green (Cronulla) tied for first place after both finished within 0.25 seconds of their nominated times.
Bert Deegenaars (Twin Towns) with 0.53 seconds off his nominated time, was third.
The Four Ways Presidents Race winner was Gosford’s Rodger Bruce (with 0.43 seconds off his time) with Richard Barwick (Nelson Bay) second (0.75) and Cobar Yabbies president John Carswell was third (1.37).
In the 30m nominated time Four Ways swim, the Yabbies finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd with Stephen Clark (0.03) winning over Murray Harland (0.12) and Owen Small (0.13).
Bondi swimmers finished first and second in the Open 30m with Pat Drury spot on his nominated time and Dan Brown was second on 0.04. Bert Deegenaars (Twin Towns) was third with 0.18.
In the 50 metres nominated time swims, the Cobar Yabbies once again dominated the placing for the Four Ways swim with Owen Small first (0.00), Chris Powell was second (0.04) and Scott Toomey was third (0.15).
The Open 50 metres winners were: 1st—Paul Widders (Cronulla) with 0.19; 2nd—Wilson Burns (Grafton) 0.21; and Gavin Batcheler (Bondi) 0.22.
The Yabbies continued the charge in the 100m event with Rob Dickerson winning the Fours Ways title with 0.50 off his time, Peter Christen was second (0.60) and Greg Dimond was third (0.84).
The 100m Open Carnival winners were: 1st—Campbell McKeller (Bondi) with 0.19; 2nd—Peter Green (Cronulla) on 0.25; and 3rd—Paul Drury (Bondi) on 0.41.
The Cobar Yabbies also cleaned up in the Four Ways 50 metres Open Sprint with Peter Christen touching the wall in first place with a quick time of 26.91 seconds with Owen Small second (28.53) and Andy Thomas was third (32.44).
The final event of the day was the 10x50m nominated time relay. Cobar won the Four Ways title after finishing within 0.64 seconds of their nominated time. Forbes was second on 2.44 with Nelson Bay third on 16.56.
Cronulla finished first in the Opens relay with 1.63 seconds off their time; Bondi was second (6.43), and Grafton was third (7.37).
