4 November 14
The last weekend in October saw the Annual trip, for the swimmers of Trafford Masters, to Sheffield. This city hosts the annual British Gas National Masters' Championships. It is well attended by the best swimmers from across the country. This year was no exception.
We had 31 swimmers participating, who between them, collected 41 medals. This statistic does not portray the real stories of the weekend. A lot of swimmers were participating for the first time for Trafford and they experienced, first hand, the team spirit of the Masters' Group.
The social side of the Masters has always been one of it's strong points, and the visit to Sheffield is no exception with 24 swimmers and supporters going to the Chinese on Saturday evening. This is enhanced by the team spirit which is strong throughout the Club. Swimmers are cheered on to the end no matter how good their performance.
In fact one swimmer, Nev Barton, was going for a British record in his 100 freestyle. He told me he knew he had broken it before looking at the scoreboard by the loud cheering that was emanating from the balcony!!
Traditionally, the weekend gets underway with the long distance 1500 metres event. 3 of our swimmers, David Randall, Ashley McEwen and Laura Bowden endured this 60 length swim. Silver medals were the prize for Laura and Dave, but Ash was a little disappointed with his swim, despite a surging start to the race.
Friday afternoon sees the start of the sprint races with our first British Record of the meet. Rachel Barton's impressive 50 metre backstroke time of 37.10 seconds knocked more than half a second of her existing record from last year. She went on to complete a hat-trick of Gold medals with swims in the 50 metres freestyle and butterfly. Husband Neville was not to be outdone though and on Friday evening he broke the British mark in 100 metres freestyle. His time of 1:00.85 shaved 0.20 seconds off the previous best. This was his first freestyle record after 25 years of trying. His favourite event of 50 metres breaststroke was not being ignored though, as he went on to break the British time for that the following day.
The other British Record breaker of the weekend, shows what determination and application can achieve. After narrowly missing the time last year, Lucy Lloyd-Roach finally put her demons to rest and broke the record in 200 metres butterfly, her time of 2:23.60 is a time a lot of freestylers at the Club would be proud of. She went on to claim gold in the 100 metres butterfly, but was a little disappointed with a bronze in the 50 metres distance.
The six ladies who swam for Trafford at the weekend did not let themselves down, apart from the record breakers other notable swims came from Heather Lawson in her first Masters' event. She obtained gold in the 200 metres Individual Medley event. She competes in the well contested 18-24 Senior Age group. A silver and 4th place completed her swims. Rachael Gorman, also competing in this section managed a couple of bronzes from her swims. She was a busy competitor over the weekend with no less than 7 individual events and a couple of relays. More of those later.
Helen Sadler competing bravely after injury, despite being in pain, swam aggressively for no individual reward. The lady who put in the most distance over the weekend was Laura Bowden with a racing total for the weekend of 2200 metres; she certainly takes the distance crown.
The Guys weren't to be left out. Apart from Neville mentioned previously, 14 guys performed admirably in the individual races. Newcomers Attiqur Rehman and Kevin Stacey were cheered on in their races. A fast improving Mike Boyle established a brilliant PB in his 50 freestyle - one to watch for the future. Great swims were recorded from Alec Johnson, with a gold in his favoured 100m butterfly, and Paul Barnard, who just failed to dip under the 2 minute mark in his 200m freestyle.
Old stagers, Neil Mackinnon and John Anderson, medalled in all their events, with John claiming 6 and Neil 4. Well done guys. Not to be left out were the younger members of the Men's team. Neil Hitchman back from a layoff performed well in his 100m backstroke, whilst Dan Burrows and Joe Keeley proved there is life after Age Groups with great performances in their races.
The old adage of leaving it all in the pool was taken to the limit by Richard Symons, after swimming his 400m Individual medley in a new PB time, he literally had to be helped out of the pool as he was so exhausted. His reward, a gold medal. Nice one Rich. We couldn't keep the coach down either. Craig Ward who competed in the pool as well as encouraging his charges. I feel that with a bit more training he could be quite good!
No Nationals would be complete without the usual Trafford Relay teams. 17 teams were entered and success was a little more rare this year. The Ladies 160+ team of Rachel Barton, Jo Bolton, Lucy Lloyd-Roach and Helen Sadler managed to break the existing British record, but were pipped to 2nd place by 0.4 of a second. There was a similar occurrence in the 4 x 200 freestyle team, where Laura Bowden replaced breaststroke specialist Jo Bolton. The 120+ teams competed bravely in what is a very well contested age group. Great swims were recorded but unfortunately no medals.
The teams to bring home the gold this year were at opposite ends of the age spectrum. The 72+ team of Heather Lawson, Rachael Gorman, Dan Burrows and Craig Ward brought home gold in their team swims. The 220+ team of Steve Metcalfe, Alec Johnson, Dave Rees and Nev Barton also brought home 2 golds, but went slightly better with 2 European records as well!! They competed in the 4 x 100 freestyle and medley events. They won the freestyle event by an impressive 11 seconds and the medley event by over 5 seconds. All told the relays produced 10 medals this year; a promising portent to what can be achieved next time.
Trafford Masters once again proved that not only are they successful in the pool, but support each other and enjoy life as well with social events throughout the year.
