The British Masters Long Course Swimming Championships took place at Ponds Forge from 2nd to 4th June and there were numerous successes for Masters Swimmers from the East Region.
Twenty-six swimmers came home with 47 national titles between them including 5 titles each for Janet Masters (South Beds Masters, 80-84), our oldest competitor at 83 years young, and Chris Dunn (Hatfield, 75-79). There were 4 titles for Liz Woolner (Team Anglia, 55-59) and 3 each for Alyson Fordham (Bishops Stortford, 65-69) and Suzanne Noble (East Anglian, 60-64). Special mention for Sam Bradley (Team Luton, 30-34) who won two Para Swimming titles. This is the first time multi-classification races have been run at the British Masters. Ten relay teams claimed gold medals with Team Anglia (pictured) winning four and West Suffolk three.
Many records were broken by the region’s masters. There were European records* for Alyson Fordham in the 50 and 100 free, Chris Dunn in the 50 free, Liz Woolner in the 50 butterfly and Suzanne Noble in the 1500 free. There were British records for Alyson in the 50 back and Liz in the 100 fly and a 100 fly record for Elizabeth Bellinger (Bishops Stortford, 45-49). A phenomenal 60 East Region masters swimming records were broken over the weekend which has kept the new records secretary Louise Hughes very busy.
Finally a quick mention for the dominance of East Region officials in the key roles at the meet – David Metcalf, Stewart Murray, Gerry Metcalf and Louise Mackie – and a big thank you to all the other volunteers from the region who helped make the championships such a huge success.
Everyone in the Region would like to extend our huge congratulations to all those who competed and thanks to the many volunteers, who supported making this event a success.
*Subject to ratification
