By Marc McGowan
DANDENONG North open-water swimmer Ebony Ebenwaldner would normally be preparing to pit her talents against thousands of competitors in the annual Lorne Pier to Pub.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old won the women’s open category of the revered 1.2km event last year – adding to her 2004 triumph in the same competition.
But there is one major difference this year: Ebenwaldner is almost eight months pregnant and is expecting to give birth to her first child on 21 February.
“Everything is going really well. (Husband) Peter and I have been trying for a few years,” she beamed this week.
“I’m still swimming two-and-a-half to three kilometres a day, but I’m only training to keep fit and it’s really helped.
“I have no goals in sight, obviously, and it has been different not training for a reason.”
Ebenwaldner, who is the head coach of the Casey Seals Masters Swimming Club, will still be keeping a close eye on Saturday’s results.
“I suppose you can’t help it, can you? I’ll have a look and see who won. It’s a bit difficult not to because it will be all over the news,” she said.
“(Six-time winner and major rival) Naantali (Marshall) actually retired as well this year, so it’s an open field.”
Ebenwaldner’s second Pier to Pub success kick-started what was a massively successful 2008 for her.
She dominated the open-water scene before producing a magnificent performance at last April’s FINA World Masters Championships.
Ebenwaldner, a former national-level pool swimmer, claimed gold medals in the 200m backstroke, 400m individual medley and 3km open-water swim.
She also managed silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley for good measure.
“I was rapt. It was everything I’d trained for and it all just paid off,” Ebenwaldner said.
Ebenwaldner got pregnant soon after, but intends on returning to competition at the World Masters Games in Sydney in October.
“This (pregnancy) is just a bit of a bump in the road,” she joked.
“I’ve kept relatively fit, but I don’t know how long I’ll be out of the water after the birth.
“I don’t have any expectations because I’ll be going in pretty raw.
“I’ll just start training as soon as I can (after the birth) and see how fit I can get and hopefully the results will come.”
Her husband Peter, 46, will also compete at the World Masters Games on the back of his impressive performances at last year’s Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast.
There he picked up two gold, a silver and two bronze.
And the Ebenwaldners are hoping – not surprisingly – that their offspring proves to be equally adept in the sporting world.
“We’re really nervous that we both swim and if it doesn’t swim there will be a problem!” she joked.
“But if they don’t like it you can’t do much about it. It might want to be a marathon runner or something.
“But they’ll be sporty – no matter what.”
If anyone is interested in becoming involved in masters’ swimming, Ebenwaldner coaches at Narre Warren’s Casey ARC on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7pm to 8.30pm.
