Could you imagine swimming from Dubbo to Bathurst? Well, two local girls have done just that in the month of February to raise money for an important cause.
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Local swimming phenoms Abby and Eva Osborne swam 200 kilometres in 28 days to raise money for the Starlight Foundation.
The pair took part in the Starlight Super Swim throughout the second month of the year and Eva said it was a charity which was quite close to their heart.
"We kind of saw it online and I was sick when I was younger which led to us being supported by the Starlight Foundation," she said.
"I guess we kind of felt like doing our part to give back and being a part of it as well."
The girls raised $3,500 over the 28 days of the fundraiser but Eva admitted it was not their plan to go over $500 until a family friend intervened.
"We started off with a goal of $500," she said.
"We had one special friend who got us there straight away in one night as soon as we put it up but we kept going.
"We kept trying to see how much we could make."
To put the distance into perspective, both the girls swam the equivalent of driving from Dubbo to Bathurst or Gunnedah in the space of 28 days.
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The distance also translates into 4000 laps of a regular 50-metre Olympic Pool.
It wasn't smooth sailing for the girls during the month with challenges arising, but the pair are fortunate their family home possesses a 25-metre pool which got a lot of use during February after an illness struck down one of them.
"It was super hard, it started off alright but in the middle, we found it more challenging," Eva said.
"We had a few hurdles, Abby got COVID so that put us back.
"We couldn't train together too which we've always done with the squad and stuff.
"So training on our own was tough but we kept going."
Eva admitted training at home required a lot more discipline after not being able to train in their normal squads.
"We could train at home when Abby had COVID so we were still able to train each day," she said.
"We made sure to stay in longer and do a few extra kilometres to make sure we finished it."
Following the completion of the fundraiser, the girls took a bit of time out of the pool in the mornings but are now straight back into competition.
"We had a morning off where we could sleep in and not go to squad," Eva said.
Both girls had several people they wished to thank, in particular their coach Anthony Chapman from Orana Aquatic who pushed them and a handful of others to achieve their goal.
"I guess all the people who donated," Eva said.
"Our coach pushed us to do the extra distance but he said told us to do more.
"We decided to do the 200.
"Our last day we had 5kms left but we had a session so the coach made everyone do the session."
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