Strong showing at Country Pennants

The best of Hedland Amateur Swimming Club made the long journey south to compete in the 2016 Country Pennants, WA’s largest regional swimming meet of the season.

More than 650 swimmers from twenty eight regional Clubs gathered in the small Wheatbelt town of Moora for the two-day event held on March 5 and 6.

Towns from across the regional WA were represented, with contingents travelling from locations including Hedland, Albany, Exmouth, Mount Barker, Wagin and Kalgoorlie.

The Hedland Sharks’ 15-person squad may not have been the largest but they returned to the Pilbara with no shortage of silverware and personal bests.

Club spokesman Brad Denney said the Hedland Swimmers trained for many months through the hot Pilbara summer to compete in the Country Pennants.

He congratulated the squad for their hard work, sportsmanship and outstanding results across the two-day event.

“Out of 59 individual swims, the team achieved 45 Gold, 8 Silver and 3 Bronze medals,” he said.

“Personal best times were set and broken by Jack Jones with two Country Pennants records, as well as Rebecca Jones and Kaylea Smith breaking one Country Pennants record each.

“Hedland won the relay trophy for E grade for the second consecutive year beating Busselton and will be competing in D grade next year in Kalgoorlie.”

Mr Denney thanked sponsors McDonalds South Hedland, Ray White, QUATTRO solutions, QSA wealth and wellbeing management, PT environmental services for supporting the Hedland Amateur Swimming Club.

“A huge thank you must also go out to the Coaches, parents and all who travelled to Moora to help make this meet successful and the Moora swim club for hosting the 2016 edition of Country Pennants,” he said.

Hedland’s swimmers will now turn their attention to the North West Open hosted by the Karratha Amateur Swimming Club on April 1.