Swimming: Mount Gambier trio take on national life saving championships

NATIONAL STAGE: Under 19’s Niamh Graney, Under 14’s Jemma Walters and Over 30 Master’s Jess Herring will represent the Mount Gambier Royal Life Saving Club as part of the South Australian team at the 2018 Australian Pool Lifesaving Championships to be held in Adelaide next week.

MOUNT Gambier Royal Lifesaving Club members Niamh Graney, Jemma Walters and Jess Herring have been selected to represent South Australia at the 2018 Australian Pool Life Saving Championships in Adelaide next week.

Running from January 10-13, the tournament will see Walters challenge the Under 14 event on the Thursday, while Graney and Herring will compete in the Under 19 and Over 30 Masters respectively, both held over three days of competition.

State team coach Christine Kalogeras recently travelled to Mount Gambier to host an intensive training session, which helped the athletes fine tune skills, while also updating them on the latest technical aspects and rule changes.

The championship events include swimming under obstacles, towing dummies weighing approximately 80kg with fins and rescue tubes, along with manikin carrying with no fins.

Other events include underwater distance swimming before picking up a manikin from deep water, the super lifesaver ‘all-round’ event, line throw rescues, a CPR competition, plus team relays.

The skills used for these competitions are all applicable to real-life situations and are skills which may one day save a life.

As members of the Mount Gambier Royal Life Saving Club, the girls train at their home venue every Friday night, where they are coached by experienced competitor Herring.

Herring said Graney and Walters, along with herself are all eager to compete in the national event.

“We are very excited and honoured to be attending the Nationals,” she said.

“We have had to travel to a deep water pool for extra practice at picking up the manikin from three-metre depth.

“We have all worked hard on our skills and we hope our preparation pays off.

“The experience will be extremely valuable to us all.”

As well as being a competitor, Herring hopes to continue her role as a coach of the local team, as she seeks

“Hopefully Mount Gambier produces some more state team members in the future,” she said.

“The sport is unique, challenging and actually a lot of fun, albeit painful.

“You need to be very mentally strong to complete some of these events as they really do test your body’s limits.”

Herring is also a former state team member, attending nationals in Adelaide (1997), Melbourne (1998), Perth (1999), Wollongong (2000) and the Arafura Games in Darwin.

She was also selected in the Aussie Barras Development Squad.

“Not much has changed in the sport as a whole over the last 20 years,” she said.

“However, the technical details have changed and you really need to be aware of them.

“Disqualification is something we want to avoid at all costs.”

The South Australia Royal Lifesaving Championships will be held in March, so the Nationals will allow the girls to experience some of the new races and techniques prior to their next competition.

Following the event, the athletes will finish off their competition with the Nationals Presentation dinner on Saturday night at the Morphetville Racecourse.