The pair returned from the NSW Masters Long Course Championships on April 5 and 6 with a swag of gold medals, and one huge personal best time.

Marshall, 48, entered five events in her age group - the women’s 45-49 100m and 200m breaststroke, winning gold in both, and the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke. Marshall also swum a 10-second personal best in the 200m breaststroke, clocking 3.34.76.

Dowsett, 42, won all five of her events - the women’s 40-44 200, 100 and 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly.

“Zoe is a machine, she did an incredible job” Marshall said

“I’ve been competitively swimming for around 18 months, Zoe has done it for a bit longer. I joined JETS with my children, and was invited to swim with them. I thought if I was doing it I might as well compete. It just went from there, I’ve learnt so much off the coaches about technique.”

Despite being almost three weeks on from the win, Marshall’s excitement was palpable.

“I’m still grinning,” she laughed.

“It was very exciting. I thought I might have a chance for a medal in the 200 breaststroke, but I wasn’t expecting to win anything going up there. It just makes all the hard work and effort worth it.

Despite qualifying for the next stage, both Marshall and Dorsett chose not to compete at the national level.

“We qualified for [the MSA National Championships], which [started yesterday] in Rockhampton - but neither of us wanted to go this year,” Marshall explained.

“We might have qualified for the [FINA World Masters in July] too, but we won’t go if we did. Next year we’ll do state again, and we’re both planning on competing at nationals next year.”