To Perth and back again

After swimming enough laps to go all the way to Perth and back again, Hedland’s Port2Port team have tallied up their big three swimmers.

Sandra Schmich individually swam 5000 laps of the 50m pool at the YMCA Port Hedland Leisure centre, the equivalent of swimming from Port Hedland to Karratha. Second place was claimed by Luke Whately, who swam 3180 laps and whose improvement over the challenge was described as phenomenal by YMCA staff.

Mr Whately uses a wheelchair and started swimming two to three laps per session, but by the end, he was swimming every day and clocking in up to 70 laps each time.

Regular lane swimmer Mick Graham came in third with an impressive 3060 laps. The challenge only required 35,400 laps to be completed, but in the end 71,119 laps of the pool were swum by the community.

The top three swimmers were presented a framed Port2Port swimming cap signed by Olympic gold medallist Libby Trickett.