Jenny and Mike featured on the programme cover

On the 10th September 2017, 18 of Bracknell and Wokingham Masters Swimmers and their watchful coach took a day off from the Sunday Roast to compete in the County Masters competition held at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead.

Held over two sessions starting at 11:30 and finishing around 18:15 it was time well spent and a great result from all the training leading up to this event. Success in Individual Medals was recorded from 11 Gold, 21 Silver and 9 Bronze and from the team events, 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze. In addition there were 8 BWSC Masters Records broken.

Apart from the 18 swimmers and Jim the Masters Coach from BWSC, there was also Rob Moore and Stuart Fillingham behind the scenes working longer hours than the event itself and also Adriana Vlatas who officiated, greatly appreciated.

The first session and the first event, the 200m Freestyle and eight BWSC Swimmers took part. Claire Moore was 3rd in her age group and just over 2 seconds behind her Club Record from 2 years ago, both Sahsa Forster and Karen Bassett were 3rd in their respective age groups, Jim Hunter, Rachel Langton and Kyran Edmunds were all runners up in their age groups and Becky O’Brien was victorious in hers. Nicki Thorpe, not only being the Gold Medal Winner, also broke the Club Record for her age group.

Two further records fell in the 100m Breaststroke from Terry Wright and Kyran Edmunds. Jenny Crittenden, Kirsty Johnson and Georgie Vlatas were all very close to their records and in doing so were silver medallists.

The 50m Backstroke followed with Mike Daniel in 3rd and Chris Ehinger in 2nd in their age groups.

The next Club Record fell in the next event with Catherine Shearn showing how a 200m Butterfly event should be swam.

The 100m Freestyle, a popular event had Kyran in 4th, Claire in 3rd, Terry, Chris and Simon Mellor in 2nd and Greg Adams and Rachel in 1st places. Greg’s swim was extremely impressive.

Watched on by her mother Adriana, Georgie broke the 50m Breaststroke record in her age group as well as picking up the Silver medal. Kirsty was also 2nd and Jenny and Karen were 3rd.

Karen was in the next event, the 100m Individual Medley and picked up another Silver medal, so did Nicki and Kyran.

The mixed 4x50m Freestyle relays followed, Kyran, Greg, Georgie and Sasha finished 3rd in their 120+ age group, Simon, Chris, Jenny and Kirsty won their 160+ age group, as did Jim, Terry, Nicki and Rachel.

A short break before the second session started with the 200m Backstroke with no BWSC swimmers. The 100m Butterfly saw a demonstration that age has no boundaries to the 47 year olds, as Mike Daniell, in the 75-79 age group, achieved Gold. He already holds the Club Record in this age group. Catherine Shearn followed her success in the 100m Butterfly by winning the 100m distance as well.

In the sprint event, the 50m Freestyle, Greg was on form and won his age group, Terry and Jim were 3rd and 4th in theirs and in a tough age group, Chris was also 4th.

Kyran took his second Club record and the Gold medal in the 200m Breaststroke, Jenny was also a Gold Medal winner with a seasons best time and was almost at the Club record that she holds.

Mike, still wet from his 100m Butterly then swam the 100m Backstroke for a bronze medal and Rachel, in achieving 2nd in her age group was only 0.42 away from her own record in this event.

Almost there.

50m Butterfly – silver for Mike and Greg, Gold for Simon who was rested having missed the 100m Butterfly and fourth places for Catherine and Sasha.

The final individual event, the 200m Individual Medley saw Kyran take Silver in his age group. Nicki took Gold in her age group and then Simon and Terry doing the double – both 1st and both with new Club Records.

The final event of the day, the mixed 4x50m Medley Relays, Silvers for Chris, Kirsty, Simon and Rachel in the 160+ team and Nicki, Terry, Catherine and Jim in the 200+ team. Nicki’s Backstroke time also broke the previous record.

The Bracknell Masters now continue their training as they have the District event on the 7th October and then the Nationals on the 27th-29th October.