Swimmers flock to first Gunnedah short course carnival in three years

It was the first carnival of its kind to be held in Gunnedah for over three years, since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dozens of swimmers turned out for the occasion, including a sizeable local contingent of over 30 youngsters who quickly set about setting numerous pool records and PBs.

"I'm pretty sure we broke a number of pool records," club coach John Hickey said.

"It was our first short course carnival for three years, and it was the first time ever for a number of my swimmers to ever race in a short course carnival.

"For the younger ones who haven't travelled as much, they would've done some best times, and some have done remarkable times up to 30 and 40 seconds."

If anything, he added, their results might have been better had there not been some unfortunately-timed ailments to some of the swimmers.

"We had a few out with injury and illness," Hickey said.

"One of my kids got injured the day before, playing in the park, and she would have broken a lot of records. So that was disappointing, but other than that we had a good roll-out and had great results."

The carnival was well-attended, with local teams from Scully Park and Kootingal present.

Additionally, squads from across the state made the trek to Gunnedah from as far afield as Sydney, the Central Coast, and the North Coast.

Remarkably, despite the sheer volume of swimmers present in a relatively modest six-lane pool like Gunnedah's, the competition ran ahead of schedule and finished early.

This, Hickey said, was down to the work done by the committee to prepare for and run the event on the day.

"From my point of view, it was a very successful carnival," he said.

"Our committee did a great job to get it up and running, and it was well-attended.

"It was on schedule all day, and we were home early so I was very grateful for that. There were some great performances too, and I'm very happy in particular with the Gunnedah kids."

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