Helen Stephenson's Swimathon 2002 Pictures

This year the organisation of the Rebus Swimathon teams was done by Hannah Gregory. She got together twelve people and organised them into two teams of approximately equal abilities. As we had an equal mix of male and female swimmers, and doing equal distances would have put some of the changeovers at the deep end of the pool, it was decided that the female team mebers would do 24 lengths each, while the male team members would do 26 lengths each. This meant that everyone was swimming a minimum of 800 metres, and the total distance covered by each team would be 5,000 metres.

These were the teams:

Rebus Turbots (black caps)

Laurie Cotter
Hannah Gregory
Richard Boutcher
Gary Hukins
Philippa Kent
Andy Potter

Rebus Halibuts (purple caps)

Maureen O'Sullivan
Clair Sear
Martin Hanak
Rob Locke
Helen Stephenson
Richard Clark

The appointed date and time for the Swimathon was Friday 22^nd March at 4:00pm, and the venue was St.George's Pool, about a 15 minute walk from the Leman Street offices.

Hannah went along early to get the teams registered, and at 4:00pm, Laurie and Maureen took to the water. They were followed by Hannah and Clair, who were swimming at about the time the photographer (Helen) arrived at poolside, armed with 1600ASA film so as to avoid the need for flash.

Here is Hannah, putting in an "organiser's" performance.

Clair glides along gracefully.

Next into the water were Richard B and Martin. Martin has been involved with Swimathon for a number of years, and was determined to do his swim, despite feeling less than 100% all week.

Richard B puts in an aggressive lap.

Martin in action, albeit without the heroics of Richard B. Participation was enough!

Martin overtakes a slower swimmer.

Martin and Richard B pass in opposite directions.

Martin is lapped on a turn.

Richard C arrived at poolside, and modelled the Swimathon team captain's T-shirt.

Rob and Andy confer about the finer points of time-keeping and lap counting.

Gary and Rob then replaced Richard B and Martin in the water. It became apparent that the Turbots were drawing some distance in front of the Halibuts.

Gary's crawl moved the Turbots even further ahead.

Rob kept the Halibuts in the hunt!

Philippa and Helen were next in. The Turbots were still ahead, so Philippa went in first, and proceeded to lap Helen a couple of times while they were sharing the lane. Richard B took over the camera, so the pictures continued.

Helen backstrokes down the pool, while Philippa comes back the other way.

Another look at Helen's backstroke action.

Richard B dared to take some swimsuit pictures of the female team members after the final changeovers had occurred.

Helen catches her breath, while Laurie, Hannah and Gary look on.

Martin, Philippa, Clair and Helen.

Laurie, Hannah and Gary.

The Turbots had an unassailable lead by the time Andy started their final leg.

Richard C brought up the rear for the Halibuts, completing his leg of the relay in 15 minutes.