The Cobar Yabbies Senior Men’s Swim-ming Club has had some pretty good swim-mers representing the club over its 50 year history.
Stuart Small has the title of ‘The most suc-cessful Yabby at National AIF Swims’.
Small was part of the Yabbies four man relay team that won the Ray Weekes Memorial Re-lay in 2008 at Goondiwindi.
The following year at Albury, Small was part of the winning 6x50m Scratch Relay side with Scott Toomey, Bill Fugar, Zac McLeod, Matt Harland and Murray Harland.
At the 2010 AIF Nationals in Nelson Bay, Small won his 35-39yrs 50m Freestyle, Open Butterfly and Backstroke events and was named the AD Barling Swimmer of the Meet (from the 530 swimmers competing.)
At Southport in 2011 he retained his 35-39yrs 50m Freestyle title; he won it again in 2012 in Dubbo; in 2013 at Nelson Bay; and again in Nelson Bay in 2014.
In Albury in 2015 he won the 40-45yrs 50m Freestyle and Open Breast stroke events.
He also claimed wins of the 40-44yrs 50m Freestyle in 2016 at Southport and again in 2018 at Nelson Bay.
In 2019 in Melbourne, Small finished first in his 45-49yrs 50m Freestyle and Open 50m Backstroke events.
He was also part of the Cobar relay team to win the 6x50m Scratch Relay with team mates Matt Harland, Cameron van Breugel, Ben Plush, Owen Small and Murray Harland.
Other Yabbies to reach the top of the Nation-als podiums include: Ben Plush (in 2012 and 2015 when winning his 50m Freestyle 30-34 and 35-39 years age events); Bob Clark (who won the 65-69 years 50m Freestyle in 2013); Stuart Harland (1st in 45-49 years 50 Freestyle in 2013); Trevor Menadue (2017, 1st 30m Freestyle Handicap); Bill Fugar (2018, 1st 30m Freestyle Handicap and 2019 1st 50m Free-style Handicap); Cameron van Breugel won his 25-29 years Freestyle events in 2019 and 2021; and Owen Small won his 50m Freestyle age divisions (40-44 and 45-49 years) in 2019 and 2021 respectively.
