THE Parkes Sharks held their annual qualifying carnival at the weekend, despite heavy downpours and flash flooding.
More than 98 millimetres of rain fell, almost twice the monthly rainfall average for December in Parkes, between Friday evening and 8am Sunday, when the first of 190 competitor’s took to the pool for their warmup before the day’s competition.
The Parkes swimming club made the decision to call off the distance events that were to be raced on Saturday evening because of the heavy rain.
However, the program was adjusted so that the swimmers entered in those events were still able to race and obtain qualifying times on Sunday.
A total of 16 clubs attended the carnival and of more than 130 events, the swimmers from the top five clubs won 106 of them.
Bathurst City Amateur Swimming Club took home 42 gold, followed by the local Parkes Sharks with 20, the Cowra Stingrays with 17, Orana Aquatic Swim Club from Dubbo with 15 and the City Of Orange Swim Club won 12.
This weekend competitors travelling the circuit head west, to Dunndeoo Amateur Swimming Club’s meet on Saturday and then Nyngan Amateur Swimming Club’s meet on Sunday.
