More swimming events planned

The Cook Islands Aquatics Federation is planning a more active calendar for water babies keen to get out for fun swimming sessions with like minded people.

This Friday at the Avarua harbour the first organised swim race of a planned series for the new season will stroke out at 5.15pm in the mid winter boiler swim.

The next planned race will be on Constitution Day August 4 where a relay swim has been organised to be held at Muri lagoon.

Swimmers of all levels are invited to the Avarua harbour for the boiler swim where there will be spot prizes up for grabs after the swim.

Cook Islands Aquatics Federation member Shannon Saunders is keen to see more people taking up swimming for fun and most importantly to maintain good health.

Big things are happening, says Saunders full of enthusiasm.

We are going to have more events regularly especially at the grassroots level.

Saunders, the islands friendly CITC pharmacist, is part of the Avarua Doggy Paddlers crew made up of local paddlers and triathletes.

The enthusiastic swimmers meet daily at the Avarua harbour lead by crew president and current King of the Harbour Justin Rous and swim between the Avarua and Avatiu harbour or to the boiler and back depending on the sea conditions.

The swimmers regularly encounter some of the islands friendly marine life on the half an hour to hour long swims including turtles, eagle rays and tons of colourful fish.

The group welcomes other keen swimmers to join them for their daily swims at 1pm daily.

In September a boiler handicap swim has been set for Wednesday 7 before the open water swimming season starts in early October.

The first event on the open season calendar will be a swim race at Muri beach on October 12.

Each swim race after this will increase in length as a build up to the biggest event on the annual aquatics calendar the Avatiu King and Queen of the Harbour swim between the islands two main harbours.

A fun family day out has been penned in for December 3 where the national open water swimming champions will be held in Muri.

With a growing calendar of events the Aquatics federation encourages people to dust off your togs and join the daily Avarua Doggy Paddlers swimming crew or start your own training for the swimming competition series starting this Friday at Avarua harbour.

This Fridays race starts at 5.15pm.