Well, in the first event Dave gave us a lesson in how NOT to split a 200 fly. 30.0, 35.4, 38.7, 35.9. The difference in the fastest and slowest 50's should only be 2 or 3 seconds ideally, so nearly nine seconds is very, very naughty! Just goes to show, that if you don't get in and practice these longer swims regularly you find it hard to get the pacing right and therefore don't swim as fast as you might have done.

100m breast... what a difference a couple of turns can make. When swimming this in the short course pool it's a great event because of Dave's quick turns and great under-waters. However, when swimming it long course he doesn't benefit from them, so he tends to do worse... a lot worse! :) 

Day two of competition, and still no Tina :( although there is a rumor she'll be making an appearance in the evening session for the 50 free! Dave's first event of the day, and third event of the weekend was the 200 free. As the race progressed it was clear that Dave was getting pretty tired - the stroke rate dropped, stroke length dropped, the stroke count therefore increased, the legs didn't want to kick any more and the younger (and much fitter) swimmers pulled away. However, Dave hung on to beat everyone in his age band to win gold medal number 2 for the weekend and even managed to pace this 200 slightly better than the 200 fly the day before. 

Final swim for Dave was the 400 IM. The goal was to go out in a 1:05 for the fly, not let too many people catch up on the back, swim long controlled breast and then not die on the free! The fly was right on time and put him in front of the main competition by 4 seconds, but then came backstroke. Really not Dave's strong suit and it saw him 2 seconds behind going into the breaststroke. Long and controlled was the order of the day and it seemed to work as he regained the lead. The wheels then kind of fell off! There was nothing left in the tank so nothing could be done when the swimmer in the next lane started to catch and then overtake Dave through the last 100m. So second place had to do.

Tina battled through her tonsillitis and 'man-flu' to drag herself to the pool for the 50m free and she put in a great swim. As with Dave in the 400 IM, Tina had her main rival in the lane next to her and knew she'd have a real race on her hands. Even feeling under the weather Tina managed to pull a 28.4 out of the bag, a fantastic time and one that suggests more long course swimming might be a really good idea!

Well that's all from this year's Long Course Nationals. Hopefully in October there will be a few more Kingfishers making the trip to Ponds Forge for the Short Course Nationals!! (That means you Paul, Wayne, Gav, Richard, Alison and Suzi)

Seen as there are no videos of this year just yet lets just look back a few months to the short course Nationals 2011 where Dave and Tina both walked away with gold medals... here are a couple of those winning swims: