The winners of the Aquatics and Recreation Victoria Industry Awards have been announced, with a local on the list.
Sunbury Aquatic and Leisure Centre’s Daniel Turok has been awarded the Duty Supervisor of the Year award for 2025.
“I didn’t really go into it thinking I was going to win, but the fact that I did win, it was a really awesome feeling,” Mr Turok said.
The Romsey local has been with the centre for more than five years, after making the switch from business analyst to lifeguard.
“I just wanted a complete change. So (I thought) ‘What was completely different?’ Well, that’s lifeguarding,” he said.
Mr Turok studied extensively to become qualified, before joining the team in Sunbury. He quickly rose through the ranks, through customer service, duty manager and is now covering a three-month role as aquatic operations team leader.
One moment that stuck out to him was an incident at the centre, where while duty supervisor, a patron fell ill.
“We had a patron who unfortunately had a heart attack in the showers… I had to break into the room and go into CPR,” Mr Turok said.
“We did our best to try and revive her but unfortunately, we couldn’t.”
As supervisor, he took charge of the situation, organising staff and shutting down the service.
During his time, he has also helped transform services at the centre, introducing a new communication tool that compiles information into an easy-to-access way for staff and members. This was then rolled out to other Hume centres, which was one of the things he was nominated for.
