A local sporting organisation has hosted an event that is expected to pour millions of dollars into the local economy.
The Mount Gambier Swimming Club hosted the 2025 SA Country Swimming Championships from Saturday to Tuesday at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.
The club last hosted the prestigious championships in 2023 which boosted the Mount Gambier economy by an estimated $2.2m.
The event attracted almost 350 country competitors from 25 clubs, primarily from South Australia, along with more than 75 swimmers from Victoria and New South Wales.
Mount Gambier Swimming Club president and 2025 SA Country Swimming Championships organiser Nathan Stratford said home state participants had an advantage in the competition.
“The visitors (from Victoria and New South Wales) have the opportunity to swim in the heats and the finals but there is a maximum of two visitors allowed in the finals,” he said.
“If a visitor happens to get a medal they are presented a medal for whatever position they take but then there is also a presentation for the top three South Australian swimmers.
“They get that recognition as a South Australian country swimmer in the records and also as a medal winner for their club.”
The Mount Gambier Swimming Club boasted the largest team in the championships this year with 39 competitors including three multi-class swimmers in a first for the group.
“Since we have been working at Wulanda we have grown considerably as a club and as a part of that our group has strengthened,” Mr Stratford said.
“We have increased our training programs to allow those kids better opportunities to be at and compete really heavily in the country championships at a minimum.
“When we hosted in 2023 I think we had 23 swimmers that were registered for the country championships.
“We have had a massive improvement over the last three years. When we moved into Wulanda I think we had 30 swimmers registered with the club and now we are at 83.
“It is massive growth and a lot of that is now that we are able to train 12 months of the year at the facility that we have got but then we are also quite visual to the general public.”
Mr Stratford said the club hopes to continue to host the championships over the coming years.
“It is the second time in three years we have hosted it and the feedback we get consistently from the other clubs visiting the region is that we’re just so lucky and fortunate to have a facility of this standard,” he said.
“We are the only regional club in South Australia to have full electronic touch pads from a timing systems concern and that is a massive advantage.
“That also cuts down on our volunteers that we have to provide to run the meet and also means that we are much more accurate as far as the times are concerned.”
Mr Stratford said the competition encouraged young swimmers including Superfish competitors and the Junior Whistleblowers.
“We include our Superfish who are our eight to 12-year-olds who are not old enough to qualify for the championships but it still gives them a really good opportunity to be involved in the event,” he said.
“A really big achievement for Swimming SA and our technical officials is where we launched our Junior Whistleblower Program which is where we saw a lot of our competitive swimmers actually join the official ranks and understand what it takes to run a swimming competition.
“We had our junior swimmers doing the announcing or doing the starting process and then also judging the strokes and working on the desk doing the recordings and the time keepings.
“It helps us get more volunteers in the future to run the sport because I think most sports need that going forward.
“There is a severe lack of volunteers across the board in a lot of sports and I think it was a great initiative of Swimming SA to create it and I do not think they have realised how much support they would get from the clubs.
“They had nearly 30-40 swimmers join in that program for the day in amongst all the other races they still had to do so it was a big effort from everyone.”
Mr Stratford thanked thank the major sponsors of the SA Country Swimming Championships which included the City of Mount Gambier, Elders Insurance Mount Gambier and The Henty.
Onkapringa finished the championships in first while Barossa claimed second, Sliver City placed third and Mount Gambier claimed fifth.
