Once restrictions have eased the club intends on returning to the Ararat Leisure Centre for their usual Tuesday and Thursday night training.

Ararat Swimming Club president Eileen Furness said the club's swimmers were "super motivated" to jump back into the pool and return to competition.

"Our swimmers are super motivated to get back," Miss Furness said.

"Everyone in the club is eager to return to the water, so we are lucky in that respect."

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Miss Furness said the club was awaiting further restrictions to ease before the club returned to training due to the Ararat Olympic Outdoor Pool being closed and the Ararat Leisure Centre capping pool use to 20 people at a time.

"We have been trying to get the kids back into the pool, but COVID-19 restrictions and limited hours with the facilities we have in town are not permitting that," she said.

"At this stage we are just waiting further announcements because at the moment we can't get back in the pool, it makes it hard to make any formal announcements.

"At this stage we haven't recommenced training because the outdoor pool is not open at this stage.

"The fitness centre is only open until 4:00pm and those hours don't work with the swimming club's night training and the capacity at the moment is 20 swimmers in the pool at the pool at one time.

"There is a lot of little technicalities that we haven't been able to get around yet."

Miss Furness revealed the swimming club was not accepting any new members, due to the club's 40 members being starved of pool time for the past 18 months.

"We have just made a decision, that we don't want people to be paying membership fees, it's just not fair. They won't be able to get into the pool, there is nothing we can do unfortunately," she said.

"At the moment we are not taking new members because at this stage it is not fair to take on new members when we can't even get our current swimmers in the pool."

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Miss Furness credited all of the coaches for all of their hard work, especially with the uncertainty clouding the beginning of the swimming season.

"The coaches are always been going above and beyond for all the swimmers and they don't get enough recognition as they should. They are giving up their free time, it is all volunteer work," she said.

"Over the past two years our coaches have been putting in more than their recommended times to try and get the kids back in the pool.

"Especially our head coach Jo Donnan, she puts a lot of work into the swimming club."

Miss Furness said the club was hopeful the swimmers could return to the Ararat Fitness and Leisure Centre before their first competitive event in December.

"We have really missed out on a lot of opportunities to be in the pool, we are just hoping to get to the fitness centre before the season starts, which is supposed to be the 4^th of December," she said.

"The Ararat fitness centre are helpful with anything we need, we are very thankful for the staff there.

"It's just a barrier of COVID-19 restrictions at the moment but if all this stuff eventuates in our favour, we should be back in the pool soon."

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