In quite muggy and at times wet conditions, swimmers and their support crew from around the region, all ventured to the Yass Swimming Pool for what was a pivotal night in the overall scheme of the competition, with crucial points to be had for each team.

Going into the event, sitting pretty on 881 points, Binalong held quite a strong buffer over the rest of the competing squads. Jugiong went in on 793, with Yass (630) and Harden (506) trailing in third and fourth positions respectively.

In the relay trophy, Jugiong sitting comfortably on 146, held the advantage over Binalong 114, Yass 76 and Harden 63.

As it went on the night, what emerged was that five records were broken. The ever-talented Thomas Carey again broke his own record again in the 12yrs 50 metre freestyle event, while a number of the new 30’s and 40’s age group records were also broken. (These records were only set this year as they are only a relatively new age group for the events.

Overall it was a well-attended carnival with numbers up from the previous two carnivals at Harden and Jugiong respectively. On the night there were over 130 participants swimming for their towns and well over 250 people in attendance which was most pleasing to Yass Swimming Club President and organizer Michael Wilkinson.

“It was great to see so many of the younger swimmers from each town competing. It’s been a few years since we have had to create multiple heats for each event”, he said.

Wilkinson also singled out all the helpers who enabled the Yass swim-meet, function as well as it did.

“I just want to say a huge thank-you to the numerous volunteers that gave up there time to help make the carnival run as smoothly as possible. Without them the carnival would not be able to run”, the President said.

From here we turn our attention to round 4 (the final round) for Saturday, January 30, where the 2015/16 season will reach its climax and new champions will be crowned. 

It looks like it’s going to be a close finish at Binalong. On 881 points, Harden who have won it in the past two seasons, face an uphill battle to win it this year, while Jugiong (1180 points) still has plenty to do and lurking with intent in second place is Yass on 1200.

Binalong with 1266 are favourites at this point. Considering that is where the Shine Shield began, it would be somewhat of a fairy-tale if they can pull it off.

A reminder that it’s really important each town gets as many participants as they can to Binalong. Each swimmer gets participation points for every event they swim in and there are more points for place-getters.

Big celebrations are in order for Binalong with the competition celebrating its 50th year. The following program illustrates the carnival-like atmosphere that can be expected on the day.

The program for Binalong:

3:00pm family fun events start – Water games / events, jumping castle, glitter tatoo’s

4:30pm Official opening of the Carnival and cutting of the cake + the march past

5:00pm  Shine Shield Carnival Begins

9:30 – 10:00 Presentation of trophies – depending on the number of swimmers in each age.