Swim England South East Masters Open Long Course Competition

Saturday 21^st & Sunday 22^nd January 2023 – K2 Crawley.

The first competition of the year and for some Masters this is a wake up from the Christmas and New Year break.

The event filled up quickly when entries opened and Nine Bracknell Masters competed in all four sessions, all watched and encouraged by their coach, Jim.

Masters compete together in these events and the results are separated into the age groups 25-29, 30-34 and so forth.

First to the water was John Williamson in the 400m Freestyle. John already holds the Bracknell Masters Club record for his age group. He improved his own 100m Freestyle record, but fell short of improving the 400m record, yet achieved the Gold position. Clair Baynton was next in this event and with pretty even splits she finished in 7^th place. Mark Straw was the third Bracknell swimmer and with a solid swim, he too, like John, was the Gold medallist in his age group.

The 100m Backstroke was next and Huw Jones broke the first of his three club records. 3^rdplace and shaving 0.24 off the previous record. In the same event Clair was 4^th, Kathryn Martin was 4^th, Terry was 2^nd and John 3^rd in their age groups.

The 200m Individual Medley followed and Ian Smith broke the club record by 1.82 seconds and a Silver medal place. Did he hold back as he was back in the next event with the 50m Butterfly, where he finished 3^rd. I am sure the record will fall again. Also in the 50m Butterfly was Joe Kirkpatrick, who achieved Bronze and a massive 2.48 seconds off the existing club record. Kathryn finished 5^th in her event and Laura Cook was victorious in her age group, even after a bruised Christmas from the slopes.

Session two started with the 200m Freestyle. Clair back in again and in a highly competitive age group and despite a respectable time, finished 7^th. Laura swam too to finish 4^th and Mark picked up a Bronze in his age group. Huw, in finishing third reduced the club record by 0.95 seconds.

Kathryn was our only swimmer in the 200m Backstroke. With this she set a Bracknell Masters record for the event, glorious, but just outside the Bronze medal position.

Bring on the European medallist Breaststroker – Jevgenijs Putans for the 100m event. Jevi was close to Gold but had to settle for Silver and a time just outside his own record.

No one in the 200m Butterfly?

Last event of the first day, the 50m Freestyle – dash. Huw, 5^th, Joe, 6^th, Mark 8^th, Kathryn 7^thand Laura 3^rd. 

The second day was quieter with Bracknell Swimmers.

No one swam in the 400m Individual Medley or the 100m Butterfly that followed straight after. Well, not this year – Next year perhaps?

Jevi was victorious in the 200m Breaststroke event, behind his own record alas.

Huw and Terry both broke records in the 100m Freestyle, finishing 4^th and 7^th respectfully. Pace work in the sessions and with Jim there with that last minute reminder certainly helped here.

Huw was back in for the 50m Backstroke with a 4^th placed position.

In the afternoon session, we had the 50m Breaststroke with Jevi taking his second Silver medal, 0.43 outside his own record.

Then the last event, the 800m Freestyle with Clair our only representative. After 16 lengths of the 50m pool Clair was fourth, and only 0.28 away from Bronze.

In summary, Four Gold, Four Silver, Eight Bronze medals and Eight Club Records from the Nine Swimmers. A great start to 2023.

Next on the swimming calendar is the Isle of Wight Masters event on the 11^th February, followed three weeks later with our own Bracknell Masters Open meet on the 4^th March.