Sri Chinmoy Lake Swims

When there are no outer circumstances to be bothered by – when the water is still, clear and a balmy 22 degrees, the sun is smiling benevolently, wind is snoozing, rain has taken a Rain Day, the course could be swum blindfold, there’s plenty of parking, no queues at the toilets, almost zero traffic on the lake, the pancakes are plentiful AND tomorrow is a Public Holiday – there’s really only one task to focus on … swim!

The course for today was a simple triangular 1.25km loop, swum 4 times for the 5km race and twice for the 2.5km swim, while the 500m swimmers enjoyed an anvil-shaped out-and-back sprint. First to start were the 5km swimmers, followed at 5 minute intervals by the progressively shorter distances.

Three course records fell, one in each distance: Perry Blackmore eclipsed Mark Wieland’s long-standing time for the M60-69 in the 5km with his outstanding performance of 1:26:50, earning him 2nd place outright. 

Belinda Soszyn returned to the beach at Yarralumla where she and husband Greg D’Arcy used to oversee the timing and results for the Sri Chinmoy Peace Triathlon Festival in its hey day through the 90s, today swimming the 2.5km and obliterating the F70+ course record with her new mark of 52:46. In the 500m, outright winner Aron Lombardi set a new Male 17+ record with a commanding 7:53 (the outright record for the 500m still stands at 7:50 set by Girls Under 17 swimmer Elizabeth Wigney in 2017).

Following Aron Lombardi home in the 500m swim was 2nd placed Yiannis Eliopoulos in 8:19, shadowed by Female 17 and Over winner J’Aime McGuire in 8:49 and Girls Under 17 winner Laura Salter with 8:59. Fastest in the Boys Under 13 today was Henry Cooper with 10:36. There were no contestants in the Boys Under 17 or Girls Under 13.

Tippi Wieland won the women’s 2.5km race handily with 41:21 to her credit, just edging out Deanne Sanderson, whose 41:36 earned her 1st place win the F50-59. Next came Jacinta Thomsen’s 44:38, then Tricia Bowman (2nd in F50-59) with 46:56, followed by two F60-69 swimmers in close proximity – category winner Jennifer Horton in 47:08 and runner-up Ann Reid in 48:10, ahead of Audrey Picard (FU50) with 49:14 and Maggie Welfare in 49:21. As mentioned, Belinda Soszyn took out the F70+ comfortably in 52:46.

Mitchell Bainbridge was unchallenged in the men’s 2.5km race, leading the whole way to win easily in 37:58, ahead of Tomas Krajca’s 40:57 and Satya Yogeswaran with 41:15. As in the 5km, the most competitive category in the men’s race was the M60-69, where Tony Croft swam a superb race to win in 46:13, ahead of M50-59 winner Ben Crabb’s 47:45, with M60-69 runners-up Alex Gosman (47:52) and Pete Quinn (48:23) not far adrift.

David Cook raced with the pressure of wearing Number 1, and lived up to the expectation to win the 5km race convincingly in 1:25:43. Next home was the super-impressive Perry Blackmore, now elevated to the M60-69 category, setting a new course record with 1:26:50, while 3rd outright went to Lloyd Dobson from the M50-59 in 1:27:16. Tom Cannon from the M60-69 followed in 1:28:23, then Mark Stephens (M50-59) in 1:34:17, Jeremy Rhind (MU50) with 1:34:21 and Mark Wieland (M60-69), 1:34:26. So of the top seven male finishers, only two came from the usually-dominant Under 50s. Rico Fitch, who has swum more Sri Chinmoy races in Canberra than any living human, took out the M70+ in 2:03:42.

Rachel Russell won the women’s 5km race in an impressive 1:28:20, for 4th place outright, ahead of Peta Bullling (1:30:25) and Laura Van Den Honert (1:31:35). Janelle Ahern took out the F50-59 with 1:42:15; Susan Henderson claimed the main prize in the F60-69 in 2:11:51 and the evergreen Janet Gorst continued her unbeaten run in the F70+ with another fine swim of 2:00:43.