MYRTLEFORD Swimming Club will continue their impressive form throughout the Ovens and Murray District Swimming Association pennant season on their own ground this weekend.

The club’s home pennant commences this Sunday and the hosts are hot favourites to take it out, following their massive win at Beechworth last weekend.

“We have had four pennants so far out of the six we do, and we’ve won two and come second in the other two,” club president Helen Howell said.

“We had about 30 at the Beechworth pennant which we won on 384 points ahead of Beechworth on 261 points, we did a great job.

“We’re hoping to win our home pennant which, if we do that, we will be able to say we’ve won the season.”

Howell said the pennant season was a great warmup for the All Junior qualifying swims, held at Yarrawonga in February.

“We’ve got our home pennant on Sunday and one more after that which is at Rutherglen, then we move into our qualifying rounds,” she said.

“The kids can swim at the All Juniors qualifying event in Yarrawonga and if they get in the top eight there they get to go to Melbourne, to the MSAC for the All Juniors Country Finals, so that’s exciting.

“When they head back to school that’s when the school swimming ramps up, so there’s lots to train for at the moment.”

Howell said the club was in a strong position in and out of the pool.

“We’ve got around 100 members with a lot of new swimmers coming on board this year,” she said.

“It’s really important teenagers stay engaged in sport, so we’re really lucky we’ve been able to keep our teenage girls swimming at the club.

“They’ve shown dedication and commitment to training to keep going with their swimming.

“The club is invested in getting those kids trained for their coaching qualifications so they can come back and coach, because that’s the future of our club.

“Without coaches, we can’t function.

“We’ve got a number of young coaches on board this year who have swum until year 12 with the club, they’ve gone off and have come back as coaches.”

The Myrtleford pennant commences from 10am this Sunday at the Myrtleford Outdoor Swimming Pool on Standish Street.