The Swim England National Masters and Seniors Championships held in Ponds Forge Sheffield. 27th October 2017.

20 BWSC swimmers qualified and entered this event and with Coach Jim Dobinson what followed was one of the best set of results that the BWSC masters had recorded in many many years. Not only in terms of medals, but with seasons best times, personal bests, club records and great camaraderie and team spirit.

Six medals, Five BWSC Club records broke and Ten two year seasons best times on day one. (Day two’s report to follow).

The entry process changed this year, previously swimmers could select their entry times, now and similar to the mainstream swimmers, the fastest time recorded in the past two years was the only option to select. What this meant is that if anyone swam quicker than their entry time, then that would of course be a two year best time.

The warm up for session one started at 7:45am and heat one started at 9:00am.

The opening event was the 1500m Freestyle and first in the water for Bracknell was Caroline Madden who then after her 60 lengths of swimming finished just only 2.17 outside her entry time, but with a Bronze medal. Next to swim was Claire Moore, her splits did not all show on the score board, but coach Jim was there to get them fortunately. Claire equalled Caroline in getting a bronze medal. The next lady in this 1500m Free was Karen Bassett, who would be the first to admit that she had not had the best of a training schedule leading up to this event and dug in for a top six finish. The only male representative for Bracknell was David Bell. This was to be the first of his seven individual events in addition to one relay. David was beaming with his time, over a minute under his entry time, a good proof that his shoulder surgery last year is behind him, the other plus was getting the silver medal.

The next session that started at 3:50pm included the 100m Backstroke, 200m Freestyle, 100m Individual Medley and 4x50m Medley Relays.

David was in good form following his 800m Free and swam 3 seconds under his entry time in the 100m Back. Clair Baynton and Rachel Langton both had top ten finishes in theirs, Neil Holmes, with a top 7 finish broke the existing BWSC masters record by an incredible 1.35 seconds. Mike Daniell, Bracknell’s true Master Swimmer, won the first of his two Silver medals of the day and with a time that was only 0.5 behind his own BWSC a record from 2015.

In the 200m Freestyle, Nicki Thorpe smashed the 2:30 barrier that had seem to be been holding her back and that she had been training for, a fifth place and another BWSC record. Claire Moore, back in also after the 1500m Free earlier, was 6th with a respectable time in the circumstances, Sasha Forster started her campaign with a great swim and Rachel swam an decent Swim given that she had just done the 100m Backstroke. The 100m I/M saw Kyran Edmunds take his first BWSC record, Karen Leftley gained a top 6 place and Jenny Crittenden Swim a seasons best time for a top ten place. Rachel, Karen L, Laura Cooke and Jenny teamed up for the 4x50m Medley, giving away 17 years in the 160-199 age group they did extremely well to finish fourth, their picture is with this article.

Session three saw more medals and records. Starting with the 200m Breaststroke, BWSC records fell for Kyran who took almost 5 seconds off his and Jenny who took almost 2 seconds off hers. Next was Mike Daniell’s second Silver medal from the 100m Butterfly, also just under his entry time. David Bell was happy-ish with his Fly, under the entry time again. Sasha Forster, in winning her heat also went under her entry time, where as Catherine was slightly disappointed not to have beaten hers, she would do better in the 200m event though. The 4x100m Freestyle relays finished the session. The Ladies 160-199 age group of Nicki, Rachel, Karen and Jenny were fifth. The Men’s 200-239 team of Greg, David, Terry and Neil were ecstatic in taking bronze medals, all with very good times, Greg’s in particular that was so close to breaking the minute, perhaps this will happen on Sunday morning.

In summary some 9400m of competition swam, three Silver and three Bronze medals and five BWSC Masters Records.

Bring on day two.

Jenny Crittenden, Rachel Langton, Karen Leftley and Laura Cooke