Manly Masters Swimming Club

Manly was represented by 29 swimmers (17 women and 12 men) at the State Relay meet at Homebush on Sunday.

We entered 34 relay teams and we finished a respectable fifth out of 24 competing clubs.
We had 10 x 1st place teams, 5 x 2nd place teams and 9 x 3rd place teams.

Congratulations to the following record-breaking Manly teams:

Men’s 280 + 4 x 100m Medley
The team of Jim Groom, Tony Goodwin, Rob Butcher and Greg Upton took 18 seconds off the
existing National short course record;

Mixed 200+ 4 x 200m Freestyle
The team of Greg Upton, Lisa O’Donnell, Jeanette Brits and Dan Phillpot took a staggering
39.98 seconds off the existing National short course record !

In a high standard very competitive first event on the programme, our Women’s 4 x 200m
Freestyle team in the 200+ age group (Helen, Abi, Kara and Jeanette), broke the National record by 4 seconds, only to be beaten into second place by the Coogee Randwick team who swam over 3 seconds faster.

Congrats Manly! 💙💙💙

This week the Manly Masters Swimming Club and the greater swimming community farewelled a beloved team mate of 36 years, Stephen Lamy.

In the 1980’s as a young man in his 30’s, he joined Manly Amateur Swimming Club and from there he joined Manly Masters in 1990.
This was followed by the Manly Diggers Swimming Club in the mid 1990’s.

He forged many friendships in those early years and those friendships have endured for more than 3 decades.

Approximately 20 years ago, he also joined the Frigid Frogs Winter Swimming Club and more recently the Balmoral Beach Club.

The man loved to swim and be surrounded by swimming.

Steve had a unique ability to perform at the top level of Masters swimming over an incredibly long time. And for many of his national record races he finished up to 20 seconds in front of his competitors across his favoured events, the 100 and 200 backstroke.

Over the course of a long career he held a staggering 104 individual National records, 117 State records, and in relays he was part of teams that set a combined total of 40 National and State Records !

Steve still holds 19 current State and National records combined. A number of these records have been his for 12 year or more. Steve was a champion of the sport.

Steve competed regularly at the highest level of the sport. Most recently at the World Masters Swimming Championships in Singapore where he won 2 x Gold medals and a bronze in the backstroke events.

Whilst competitive swimming gave Steve many memorable moments throughout a long career, he also gave back in spades, participating in the administration of all the swimming clubs he swim within. Most significantly he took the role of Manly Masters Carnival Director for 25 years.
For his efforts at club level, Steve was awarded life membership.

Somewhat fittingly Steve’s last competitive event was the Manly Masters Club Carnival in November ‘25 where he swam but also announced the races on the day.

In many ways Steve was a quiet achiever, letting his actions do the talking both in and out of the pool.

He leaves an enormous legacy to our sport and our lives are more enriched for knowing Steve.
Our community has lost a true swimming legend, a warm friend and good bloke.

Masters Swimming NSW Masters Swimming Australia

Club member Bernd Petring set a goal last year to swim the English Channel solo.

Since that moment he has maintained a laser-like focus to try and achieve his goal.

He has gone through all the necessary hoops to qualify (long swims, cold water swims, more long swims, more cold water swims - you get the idea).

He is due in Dover today, UK time and has a swim window of between the 6th and 11th August.

We hope he has some favourable conditions as the day draws near !
Best of luck Bernd! 💙💙💙

The team had a great time at the MNSW Long Distance State Championships at Woy Woy on the weekend.
Races included everything long and gruelling !…. Think 1500 butterfly and 400 IM 😜😜 But that didn’t faze our legends, returning with a haul of medals, records and big smiles.
Awesome work everyone!

Manly had a fantastic day out at the Warringah carnival last weekend.
We were out in force with 33 swimmers including 7 relay teams.
Many awesome swims by everyone!
No other clubs were game enough to enter M280 or W280 teams, so Manly teams were competing against themselves !
Jeanette Britts broke the National record for the 50 Fly and NSW record for the 25 Fly. Congrats Jeanette!!
The mixed 280 relay, including Helen, Tony, Rob and Jeanette broke the NSW record.
What a team!
And we brought home the Visitors Trophy again, for the visiting club with the largest point score.
Amazing 💙💙💙

The team looking very happy after winning the Trophy for the club with Most Points at today’s Warringah Masters Carnival 🤩🤩🤩

We are so proud!

Huge congratulations to Jeanette Brits from Manly on provisionally breaking FOUR World Records in the W65-69 age group at the 2026 MSA National Championships in Brisbane!

⭐200m Freestyle - 2:20.35
⭐400m Freestyle - 4:55.87
⭐400m Freestyle - 4:55.59 (800m split)
⭐800m Freestyle - 9:56.21

An extraordinary display or endurance, speed and consistency across multiple distances!

Our most fabulous and inspiring President Ross Hall wrote a few words about his experience at MSA National Champs last week.
A great perspective on why masters swimming is important and why it’s the experience and the people around you that make all the difference.
💙💙💙💙

‘When the event schedule was first published for this meet I was initially a bit daunted and disheartened - I was clearly one of the slowest swimmers competing and therefore in the last (slowest) or second last heat for almost every event I had entered.
I was also in the men's age group with the most entrants (47) so I thought this could be ugly !
Doubts crept in as to why I was going and whether or not I was of a sufficient standard to be competing, particularly given the strength of our team.
I gave myself a 'reality check' and told myself that sometimes in life, you have to put yourself out there for good things to happen.

I was feeling fit and healthy, (both blessings for which I am very grateful) and went to Brisbane with three main aims in mind:

1) to swim to the best of my ability;
2) to support my Manly teammates at every opportunity, and
3) to have fun and 'enjoy the ride'.

I believe I achieved all three aims and received more in return than I could have ever hoped for - here are some of the highlights:
* I had the privilege of sharing time with John Martin, who at age 90, is our oldest competitive club swimmer. John competed on Day 1 only and also stayed with me.
* For the record, John competed in two individual events and one relay, where he collected a gold and silver medal (100 free and 50 Back respectively). We went out to dinner with most of the group on those first two nights - it was an absolute delight to spend time with John !
* I met and chatted with fellow swimmers on the 30 minute shuttle bus ride to the pool and back each day where we compared swimming stories and talked about other things;
* Whilst time-keeping on pool deck one day, I was inspired by the man in his eighties who swam a 400m backstroke - a challenging feat in its own right, except that this man was an amputee and only had one leg;
* I was again on pool-deck timekeeping when the first and fastest heat of the Men's 50m butterfly was swum - possibly the most exciting race on the calendar.
* Scott Miller, a former Olympic butterfly silver medallist from Atlanta 30 years ago (now aged 51) was the focus of all eyes - he was touched out by a much younger swimmer and swam 25.41 secs.
* The sight of 10 elite butterfly swimmers surging towards you was a sight to behold !
* I shared a lovely Italian meal with Tony Goodwin one night and learned a little about his life story, away from the pool.
* I met our youngest competitor, 29 year old Ben McVean for the first time and learned a little about his life and witnessed him win a Gold medal in the men's 400m backstroke.
* I spent time both at the pool and over dinner with the lovely Brits' family - daughter Kara and parents Jeanette and Gary;
* I was regaled by stories from Ray Barnett's time growing up in the UK;
* I was on pool deck with many others when Cam McEvoy lined up in Heat 1 of the Men's 25m freestyle - he swam the event in 9.32 secs and beat his nearest rival by approx. 1.3 secs - a staggering winning margin in such a short event against the best masters swimmers in the country !
* I witnessed first hand some amazing swims by our whole team, details of which will be shared with everyone later in the week.
* I experienced first-hand the wonderful vibe in the arena - a fantastic announcer and commentator, Greg Flanders from Brisbane Southside Club (who wasn't competing). He read out swimmer profiles during longer events, commentated on many others and played appropriate songs which had the whole place rocking including dancing timekeepers using the timing button as a pretend microphone,
* I was poolside on the last day when Dan and Jeanette both swum amazing 800m freestyle races in adjoining lanes;
* Oh yes, ----------- and one last thing I nearly forgot !
* Unbeknown to me and most everybody else at the time, Cam McEvcoy had asked officials if he could swim the 25m free a second time.There happened to be a couple of spare lanes in the final heat (my heat). There was a 'mystery swimmer' in Lane Zero. The commentator called the race and with everyone glued to the event, Cam McEvoy won the heat in a time of 9.26 seconds - the fastest 25m freestyle time ever recorded - now that's a memory that's hard to top !
* I was one of 6 of the Manly team who attended the Championship Awards Presentation Evening and shared in the excitement of Jeanette and Tony both winning the 'Swimmer of the Meet' Awards - not bad when you consider there were nearly 800 competitors !
These are some of the priceless memories from the meet that I will long remember and treasure. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

On balance, I would happily take these experiences and be in the slowest heats any day of the week !

Thanks for taking time to read my story ".

Get across this and start planning for the second half of 2026 racing!

We are excited to invite you to the rescheduled goal setting session designed specifically for our Masters swimmers.

Date: Sunday 17 May

Time: 9.30–10.30am (after Sunday morning training)

Location: Warringah Aquatic Centre – Creche Room

We are pleased and very grateful to welcome Lauren Stadler back to deliver a practical and engaging session focused on helping you get the most out of your swimming this year.

This session will explore how setting the right goals can improve motivation, consistency, and performance in the pool. Lauren will share simple, effective strategies to help turn big ambitions into clear, achievable steps so you can train with purpose, stay focused, and make meaningful progress.

Whether you are training for competition or simply looking to improve, this session will give you tools you can apply straight away.

There is no cost to attend and you can book here: https://warringahmasters.org.au/book-training-session

Everyone is welcome! We do need a minimum of 20 people for the session to go ahead so please book in!

We hope to see you there.

Tony and Jeanette named Male and Female Swimmer of the Meet!
And if you remember, the same thing happened at the Darwin MSA National Championships!! Tony and Jeanette are absolute legends of the sport and we couldn’t be prouder.
Congrats to you both 💪💪