7 May 12
The Masters British Championships were held at the Ponds Forge pool Sheffield at the weekend and Trafford Metro swimmers set 2 new world records in relay events along with an individual British record. A small contingent of just 13 of our swimmers competed in the long course event and brought about probably the most impressive medal hauls in the clubs history with 19 gold, 13 silver and 4 bronze.
The first world record was set by the mixed 4x100 Freestyle combined age 160-199 years team consisting of lead off man Alec Johnson touching in 58.57 seconds, a new British individual record. Helen Sadler swam the second leg in 1:03.68 and Lucy Lloyd Roach went 35 hundredths quicker in 1:03.33. Steve Harding brought the team home with a 58.12 to set the new world mark of 4:03.70. The same mixed team then went on to set a new British record in the 4x100 medley breaking the previous mark by 27.69 seconds setting a new target of 4:35.43.
The second world record went to the 4x200 Womens Freestyle relay team for combined age category 100-119 years. They smashed 15.18 seconds off the old world record time. Emma Ross led off with a 2:22.37 handing over to Becky Lennon who went 3 tenths quicker. Laura Bowden swam third leg recording a 2:19.78 before handing over to anchor swimmer Lucy Lloyd Roach who brought the team home with a 2:19.75 seconds and a new world record time of 9:23.95 seconds.
The weekends stand out performer from the womens section was 41 year old Helen Sadler who won National Champion gold medals for the 50m Backstroke, Butterfly and Freestyle as well as 100m Freestyle to go with her world and British record relay swims and one other winning relay swim as well as a silver in another relay.
In the mens section it was a close call between 71 year Neil MacKinnon and 50 year old Alec Johnson. Neil continues to dominate septuagenarian British swimming sprint events picking up gold in the 50m Backstroke Freestyle and Butterfly as well as the silver for 100m Freestyle. Alec won the 50m and 100m Butterfly along with silver for the 50m and 100m Freestyle. These individual performances were added to his 4 relay swims, three of which were gold with British and world record team results and one silver. As Alec was lead off in the relay, his 100m Freestyle performance could be timed for an individual result which gave him the bonus of a British record, lowering the mark that he had previously set in march at the Welsh National Championships.
Other gold medalists were Jo Bolton in the 50m and 100m Breastroke to go with a silver in the 200m. Laura Bowden won the 800m Freestyle along with silver and bronze in the 400m and 200m Freestyle respectively. Steve Metcalf was a clear winner in the 400m Freestyle and took silver in the 200m Freestyle and 100m Breastroke. Rob Arnold won gold in the hard mens 400m Medley and was desperately close to picking up 2 further golds in the 200m medley and 800m Freestyle being pipped into second by the tiniest of margins. Rob also picked up a bronze in the 400m Freestyle. The 19 year old Jonathan Higham also picked up a brace of bronze medals in the 50m Backstroke and Freestyle events.
Spare a thought for the womens medley relay team. They had targeted and trained hard to break a world record in the 4x100m event, which they duly did by 7.73 seconds only to be edged into second place in a tremendous effort by the team from Long Eaton.
The Trafford Metro team finished third overall in the UK which, remembering there were only 13 swimmers competing was an incredible performance especially considering that they were up against the huge ‘super squads’ of London based Otter and Spencer. The short course national championships will be held in October. We hope to take a full strength squad to compete for the top UK spot so as many swimmers as possible will be needed to turn out and represent the club.
