3 August 15
Top 10 finishes all round at ASA Masters Open Water National Championships!
The event was at Rother Valley Country Park, near Sheffield and the contrast in weather on the other side of the Pennines was unbelievable yesterday! The sun was out and the setting was glorious (see the panoramic below)!
We had 3 swimmers from Trafford who all put in good performances.
Rachel O’Gorman was our sole representative in the 1500. She came 2nd in her age group in a time of 21.50.
In the 3k we had 2 representatives:
Ian Griffiths who came 7th in his age group in a time of 57.28, which was faster than last year! Great to see all the training is paying off! I know he was hoping to go faster, but under challenging conditions (a nasty head and cross wind) a fine and respectable performance! Good practice for Windermere in a few weeks time
Lucy (easier to talk about myself in the 3rd person) came 4th overall and 1st in her age group. Finishing in a time of 42.59. I’d still consider that this is my first season of racing open water (following a boat and training doesn't count), so I've learned a lot so far this season. I felt my open water skills (turning, sighting, drafting) were better but I just need to work on pace awareness! Despite my best intentions to take it out easy, I’d have to say that there was a distinct flavour of max and build, which on a 3k means 2.5k of suffering!!
Missing from the action was Laura Bowden due to a shoulder injury – here’s hoping for a speedy recovery Laura!
Former Trafford swimmer, Emma Ross was also swimming (with East Leeds) and she won the 1500 in a time of 21.48, sounded like it was a proper fight! Then she came 3rd in the 3k in a time of 47.03. She was using this as a training swim to get used to getting in swimming hard, re-warming and then swimming again as we'll be doing in our relay.
Well done everyone! Hope to see more of you there next year… No excuses now we’ve got such a great OW training facility on our door step at Sale Water Park!
Full results available here:
Pictured below Rachel Gorman, Lucy & Emma and Ian Griffiths followed by the panoramic view of Rother valley
