Five representative swimmers from Deniliquin High School were unexpectedly evacuated from Sydney International Aquatic Centre at the Olympic Park complex during competition this week.
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The students and their chaperones were attending the Combined High Schools swimming competition.
There were 250 people in the complex at the time, with the fire believed to have started in the roof top solar panels.
As a result, the event schedule was delayed and event organisers decided to cancel the relay race events.
Despite this, individual swimmers Olivia Armytage and Luca Caniglia got to swim in their individual races.
They qualified after both swimmers broke Deniliquin High School records for their respective age groups in the 100m breaststroke in February.
In the individual events in Sydney, Luca achieved gold in the 14-year boys 100m breaststroke, swimming a 1:11.96 in his heat.
It was a two-second personal best, one second off the record and placed him as the fastest qualifier to the final, which he won.
Luca also swam the 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke, achieving personal bests in all events.
Luca’s father, Rohan Caniglia, said the results at the carnival demonstrate the effort Luca has put into his swimming.
“Luca’s been putting in a lot of work going to Echuca every day for swimming.
“It shows how hard it is for a kid from the country to train as opposed to some of these city kids, but he’s doing well, and we’re very proud of Luca.”
Luca will now compete at the NSW All Schools swimming championships in Sydney on Thursday, May 30, and Friday, May 31.
Deniliquin’s other swimmers all competed well, but were unable to progress further in the championships.
Had Olivia Armytage, Olivia Jeffrey, Lilly Boyer and Elka Connolly been able to compete in their 200m freestyle relay race, which was cancelled because of the fire, it may have been another story.
The Deniliquin swimmers were standing on the blocks preparing for their race when the fire could be seen coming from the Sydney Olympic Park complex.
According to Fire + Rescue NSW, a working fire in the solar panels on the roof of the sporting facility was found, with investigations under way to determine the cause of the fire.
Deni's relay team Olivia Jeffrey, Olivia Armytage, Lilly Boyer and Elka Connelly.
Rohan, who was in attendance, said the evacuation was alarming at the time.
“The fire was directly above where we were sitting,” he said.
“The fire alarms went off and we were wondering if it was a drill, but then we could smell the smoke.
“It was pretty dramatic and frantic. The main thing was the separation between the parents and the kids and finding each other.”
Rohan said it was disappointing the emergency impeded some events, but he praised the organisers for doing what they could to keep everyone calm and safe.
“The organisers were completely segregated to one side of the building and delayed the rest of the day.
“We were in limbo all afternoon and got the news around 6pm.
“Initially they weren’t sure if the event was going to go ahead, but the organisers did a fantastic job getting the event up and running again.“
While the individual events could get up and running, Rohan said it was a shame that the relay teams who travelled for the event could not compete.
“It (the fire) postponed the individual events and cancelled the relay events, so the four Deni girls were disrupted.
“They were on the blocks about to race as the alarms went off.
“They came to Sydney for the event but didn’t even get in the pool, which was disappointing.”
Despite the distraction, all five students attending the carnival in Sydney were great ambassadors for Deniliquin High School.
