31 October 11
At last weekends British Gas ASA Masters National Championships Trafford Metro swimmers broke 3 British & European relay records and set 3 new British records for individual swims. In total the club’s medal tally was 18 gold, 13 silver and 6 bronze.
The first British and European record was for the Mens 4 x 100 Free 200+ combined age. Alec Johnson led the team off with a 58.50 split handing over to Nev Barton who returned a 60.57. Third man in was Graham Sadler with a 59.73 who handed over to anchor man Steve Harding who blitzed a 56.53 setting a new mark of 3:55.33 lowering the previous time by a massive 9.91 secs.
The next British and European record was in the Mens 4 x 200 Free 240+. Neil Mackinnon was first off in 2:57.23, Dave Randall took over returning a 2:38.80 before handing on to Ashley McEwan who put together a 2:38.25 allowing Nev Barton to finish the job off in style with a 2:19.27 giving an overall time of 10.33.55 breaking the previous mark by an astonishing 32.50 secs.
Mens 4x200 Freestyle relay 240+
The third British and European mens record was for the 4 x 200 Free 160+. Johnny Giles swam the first leg in 2:06.61. Steve Metcalf went off second in 2:08.71. Rob Arnold was third man with a 2:15.08 and Richard Symons brought the team home with a 2:09.04 giving a time of 08:39.44 to lower the record already held by Trafford Metro by 4.73 seconds. Johnny Giles and Rob Arnold were both in the original record holding team.
Mens 200+ 4x100 Freestyle European record breaking relay team
Neil Mackinnon was certainly the man of the meet setting new British records in the 70-74 years age group for the 50m freestyle backstroke and butterfly events. In the freestyle Neil broke his own record by 0.12sec to set a new mark of 29.31secs. In the backstroke he pared 0.31 off giving a new record time of 36.66secs and he lowered the butterfly time by 0.19secs to the new mark of 33.40secs.
Neil Mackinnon setting new British records 70-74 age group
In addition to Neil Mackinnon’s record breaking swims he also won gold for the 100m Individual Medley and backstroke and the 50m breastroke. Other gold medalists were Laura Bowden age 24 winning the 1500m freestyle; Neville Barton age 57 for the 100m and 50m Freestyle as well as the 50m breastroke; Paul Longland aged 32 for the 50m freestyle; Rachel Barton for the 50m Freestyle and butterfly events for age category 60-64 and Jill Jones took gold in the 50-54 category in the 200 freestyle. In addition to the record-breaking relay teams a further team gold went to the mens 400m freestyle team age 120+ made up of Johnny Giles, Rich Symonds, Steve Metcalf and Paul Longland.
There were silver medals in the 40-44 category for Tracie Gorst in the 200m backstroke and Jo Bolton in the 50m and 100m breastroke. Jill Jones was second the 100m butterfly. 51 year old Rob Arnold took silver in the 400m and 200m freestyle as well as the 400m IM. Neil Mackinnon also won silver in the 100m freestyle whilst Nev Barton did likewise in the 100 breastroke. Richard Symons was also awarded silver in the 1500 and 200m IM. Laura Bowden was also a silver medalist in the 800m freestyle. The womens 800m freestyle relay team combined age 120+ comprising Rebecca Lennon, Tracie Gorst, Sandra Skellern and Emma Ross also won silver.
Bronze medals went to Tracie Gorst in the 50m backstroke, Jo Bolton in the 200m breastroke, Jill Jones in the 100m freestyle, Johnny (feed the swans) Giles in the 400m freestyle and 57 year old Dave Randall came third in the 1500m freestyle. In the mens 200m medley team age 160+ Rich Symons, Nev Barton, Steve Harding and Paul Longland also won bronze medals.
Nationals 2011 competitors with coach Nikki Williams far left
In addition to all the medalists there were a further 16 4th places that included arguably the swim of the meet by 44 year old Steve Metcalf who returned a lifetime personal best in the 100m breastroke of 1:10 secs. Other swims worthy of note included Becky Lennons 800 freestyle, Jonny (Mr max & build) Giles for all his swims, Rich Symons for a 200 backstoke PB at the end of a very long weekend of swimming and Dave Randall’s 200IM PB in the long awaited rematch with Wobbly Bob which Wobbly managed to win again. All our swimmers did the club proud with their performances, too numerous to mention but many of which were personal bests despite not troubling the medal podium. Congratulations also to 2 of our newer swimmers making their debut at the Nationals Carolyn Dawe and Malcolm Orrell.
Masters coach Nikki Williams was delighted and very proud of all the Trafford swimmers that made the meet such a great success capitalising on all the hard training hours that have been put in during the year. The results achieved at this years National meet is all the more impressive considering the fact that 3 key members of the team had suffered ear infections and were unable to swim. This severely affected the ladies relay teams that had targeted several world and European records as well as 5 further realistic gold medal chances and several other medal opportunities. All things considered the meet was a huge success proving that the Trafford Metro Masters section continues to be a major force in UK Masters swimming.
A full round up of results with times can be viewed on the British Swimming website http://www.swimmingresults.org.uk/masters/results/2011/asama11/index.php
