Congratulations Maria

Just over a week ago, Maria Tarandetti travelled to Alice Springs to compete in the Masters Games, held between Saturday 9 October and Friday 15 October.

Maria was just one of a small handful of competitors from WA.

She swam in six events: 50 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres in each of freestyle and breaststroke. All up, Maria turned in some top performances, most notably in the 100 metres freestyle where she shaved 8 seconds off her PB and in the 100 metres breaststroke coming in 11 seconds under nominated time in 2.21.89.

Well done Maria!

Elie's Tent no Belly Flop on the Social Calendar

When 15 Riverton people arrived at Elie's Tent in Victoria Park on Saturday evening, they were anticipating the taste of delicious Lebanese cuisine - perhaps some hoummos, perhaps some tabbouleh, even some falafel and maybe some shish kebabs. There was certainly that - AND MORE!!!

With more spectacular costumes than you'd see at a Lady Gaga concert, Fatima the gorgeous belly dancer took to the floor.

With all the men on the Riverton table calling "Pick me", she must have known we didn't have the moves as she delicately bypassed us to entice other dancers to join her.

NOW, THAT'S A KNIFE!!!

Where this girl could balance a knife defied imagination.

All up, the evening was a fabulous mix of food, conversation and entertainment.

Thanks to Lesley for organising the evening.

Round 23 - Barbecues: 3 votes; Training: 2 votes; Dynamic Coach: 1 vote

What the Brownlow Medal is to the AFL world, a barbecue with awards is to the Riverton swimming world.

Less bling ... but more T-shirts
Fewer Manolo Blahniks ... but more thongs and sneakers
Fewer cheesy acceptance speeches ... but more awards to be given

On Monday evening, 22 of us barbecued after a short and sharp training session in the pool. The event was to mark the presentation of a series of awards reaped by members over the past few months. As president, Mark introduced the theme of the evening and then passed over to Coach Damo to make the presentations.

First up were the presentations of certificates to everyone who participated in and completed the Bunbury Postal Swim. This comprised swimming 400 metres of each of freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. Congratulations to everyone who participated. A top effort!

Special congratulations go to Robert Weir who swam the fastest overall time by a swimmer from all the clubs that participated in the event. In doing so, Robert was awarded a medal. (Seen in the picture below being held by Damo). A fantastic achievement Robert! Well done!

Seen below are various members scrutinising and comparing their times recorded on their certificates.

A couple of further certificates were presented to Malira Cocking for breaking her own state records in her age group for the 100 metres and 25 metres breaststroke events at the State Swim held earlier in the year. (See picture below). To continue to break state records is a fabulous achievement. Well done Malira!

Thanks to Lesley for organising the barbecue, her team of helpers with the cooking, and to everyone who attended for helping to make the evening another successful social event.

Riverton caught hook, line and sinker at Snappers

Well Well Well,

Hang on i know what you are thinking....here we go again, Damo is going to dribble on and on about another bloody gala (swimming carnival).

Well guess what...YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON McDUFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You see what i did there? Goodness me i am clever, am i not?? Oh yes teach you i can....BUT as i sit here in the throes of a sugar coma let me not dribble too much. Instead let me lay it out so you can play it out...

• YES 9 fearless Riverton Masters swimmers went to Challenge Stadium and came away with a 5th Placing....missing out on 4th place by a measly 5 points


• YES we all helped time keep thank you to everyone who took a seat !
  

• YES it was Tammy's fault we missed out on 4th place...Unfortunately Tammy was unable to attend the Gala (swimming carnival) as she was out digging trenches. No really she was apparently this is what South African people do when their rugby team slips out of the top 4 ranked teams in the world.

• YES you can find a summary of the results here
  http://www.portal.aussi.org.au/meets/index.php?EventId=151905&filter=*&split=no&js=on
  

• YES there were many PB's and great swims from our team....


• Scotty Z awesome 35 for his 50 fly, did it so well we got him to do it again in the relay !


• Steve J 36 for his 50 Free great swim


• Hilary pulled a 1.34 out for 100 Free....that's a 9 sec PB !


• Steve-O 31 for his 50 Free (more on this later)


• GP 1.23 for his 100 Free and an awesome Breaststroke leg in the relay !


• Kazza very solid 100 Free with a dodgy foot and slid off the bench and onto the blocks for the women's relay
  

• Nadine held her 50 Free together very nicely


• Barbara swum an excellent 200 Breast


• Even your correspondent was happy with his 50 fly...Hey Tammy i had your nemesis in the lane next to me and guess what....Yes i beat her !!


• YES i have used the word YES far too many times...


• YES the relay teams all swum very well


• YES there was an excellent lunch afterwards


• YES GP WON THE RAFFLE !!! (See picture below)
  


• YES we got a team photo (Thank you Simon) and Kazza was all set to depart as there was much painting to be done at home, however, after some well placed "peer pressure" (thanks for your help GP) Kazza decided to stay and dare i say it....go on dare dare...i think she just maybe, a little, enjoyed herself.

STORY OF THE DAY - A conversation between Steve-O and Myself

Steve - "You know Damo i just really struggled with the last 15m of that race....man what did you have for breakfast?"
ME- "Fruit and oats, why mate what did you have for Brekky?"
Steve- "Ummm oh hang on a minute i did not have any?"
ME - "Ah yes well i think we just might have a solution for your problem"

45 mins later after Steve-O has a) eaten something b) smoked 31 for his 50 free

ME- "Hey great swim mate how did you feel towards the end of that one?"
Steve- "Felt great it's amazing what a difference eating makes isn't it - i just had so much more energy"

For all you kids reading this out there, remember breakfast is the most important meal of the day..Steve will be writing this on the white board 100 times tomorrow night before training

Yours in Powerade
Damo

Riverton on the bottom but come up PUMPED !

Righto everyone gather around a quick roll call if I may...

Tammy "I really do exist" Souster - Present
Jana "The dirty Collingwood supporter" Van Voorthuizen - Present
Yvonne "Is my cossie too bright?" Yoo - Present
Kazza "Where is my hairbrush" Anderson - Present
Maria "I need to pace myself over 50" Tarandetti - Present
Nadine "6 dogs" Neethling - Present
Hilary "Does this outfit make my bum look big" Vaughan - Present
Lee "How do I do this again?" Murphy - Present
Steve "Checked my 100000 emails but still not sure if entered" Wills - Present
Scotty " Oooh I like the yellow in the Riverton bathers" Zuideveld - Present
Damo "I only open my mouth to change feet" Eyre - Present
Malira "I need a new calendar" Cocking...............Malira? Has anyone seen Malira??? Malira? Yoohoo where are you???

Tammy calmly picks up her mobile and makes the call it goes something like this...

"Hi Malira it;s Tammy" (said in South African accent)
"Are you coming to the Gala" (she means swimming carnival)
"No it's on today we are all here and the gala (swimming carnival) is about to start"
At this point the Club Captain starts swearing and begins to curl up into the foetal position. Tammy calmly continues...
"So can you make it?"
"Well they are about to start but if you leave now you can still make it"
Tammy ends the call, looks at the club captain now frothing at the mouth and mumbling incoherently and says "Malira had it in her calendar for tomorrow, she is leaving now and will be here in 20mins.

Fast forward 22 mins later and Malira comes jogging in, looks around and sees her 1st relay swim about to start. Malira then rips off her clothes prompting Steve-O to comment that he has never seen a woman disrobe so quickly ( I could comment here but moving on) and then sprints down to the starting blocks, dives in and away she goes. By this stage it is all too much for the Club Captain who promptly has some bex and a lie down.

Believe it or not a relay carnival did take place this afternoon at Challenge Stadium. It was lots of fun, well run and our club had some great results...The least of which was Malira turning up ! So onto the swimming and back to my preferred method of bullet points !

The good

• Riverton broke THREE relay records how good is that !


• Our 72-119 age group won a trophy (see pic) how good is that !



• Mens 4x25m IM relay hanging on to FLOG Claremont.How good is that !


• Having 12 Riverton swimmers represent our club with distinction...How good is that !


• Malira turning up - Have I already covered this???


• Collingwood losing to Adelaide


• Swans flogging Brisbane and securing a home final


• Ok ok Freo won.....


• Yvonne taking home "Best Dressed on Pool Deck" award


• Kazza remembering to collect all the caps


• Jana writing all her events on her arm (see pic)
  
  

The Bad

• Tammy how do you spell Nemesis??


• The Club Captain's minor meltdown
  
• Kazza losing a hairbrush


• Steve-O wearing a modesty suit (actually that is probably a good thing)
  
• Scotty Z is running a half marathon tomorrow.


• The Club Captain running out of snakes and thus ending up in Benny's bad books

The Ugly (sort of but not really)

• It almost got VERY ugly when Jana did not want to pull out of the women's 4x100 Free relay and the other ladies did.....HOWEVER it was all for the best because Tammy, Malira, Nadine and Jana set a new record and RIPPED 30 secs off the old mark..well done girls err ladies

Once results are finalised I will update this literary masterpiece with all the appropriate details. Thanks to all the swimmers today it was a top afternoon and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves...

Yours in Glycogen

Damo

Maida Vale/Belmont BACC Meet Report: 22 August

And then there were three...

Sunday 22 August dawned and we tuned in for the morning's headlines:

• Handful of independents hold balance of power
• Indecision and confusion amongst the masses
• Who is our leader?

OK, enough about the swimming carnival. What happened with the election?!?!? Oh, that was the election?!? Funny that. The headlines were the same for both events!

So, without further procrastination, here is the meet report.

On a day when there were more scratchings than you'd find in a men's change room after a tough game of footy, the team of Steve, Maria and Kazza arrived at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre to represent Riverton. As we checked in at the desk, we found that, once again, Riverton's entries hadn't been added. Oh, great! Shall we go home? No! Fabulous Lynne Duncan from Maida Vale slotted us in to the events we wanted - exactly! Not exactly the heats we thought we were going to be in but that didn't matter. Hey, it's not every swimming meet that we all get to come first in some of our heats!!!

The team ...

Some honourable mentions:

• Steve - Should I go to work or swim in the carnival? Hey, I think I'll swim in the carnival. Correct answer! Work will always be there tomorrow but a Belmont carnival only comes once a year. Remember - there is no I in TEAM! What a fabulous 200 metre freestyle heat! Steve clocked in and everyone else was still doing the 150 metre turn. A top effort!
• Maria - Should I swim in the 50 metre freestyle? I'm not sure I've got time for another coffee. OK, I will. Correct answer! First in that heat as well as first in the 200 metre freestyle heat by a long way. Fantastic work!
• Kazza - Two caps and three hairbrushes! Not taking any chances this time. First in her heat for the 50 metre freestyle. A tidy effort!

A few more honourable mentions:

• Belmont is a nice venue - lovely artificial plants, a beautiful leadlight window (Mmmm... We need one of those at Riverton), and nets hanging from the ceiling. A very maritime feel.
• Des Seery (ex-Riverton ) officiating for Masters WA. Wow, were we impressed by the microphone technique and the red light/hooter start combination. But that was nothing compared to those very trendy officials' uniforms. There is something about a man in uniform ... Great job Des!

All up, we had an enjoyable morning.

An En-thai-cing Evening at Mai Thai

Thai me up, thai me down,
But don't thai me kangaroo down sport ...

A group of twelve met at Mai Thai Restaurant on Canning Highway in Alfred Cove on Saturday evening to dine on a thai-riffic and apperthaising banquet. The food was great (and there was plenty of it!) and the ambience and conversation was even better.

With no pun untendered, everyone had a great thai-m. Thanks to Lesley for organising the evening.