Five of our Masters travelled in various directions during the first quarter of 2022 to compete, all returning with medals of varying colours.
Bracknell and Swansea were the two destinations which reaped a new Beds County record for Dave Wright and new Club Masters’ records for Dave, Colin Mayes and Sam Bradley.
A report (with a link to the full results) may be accessed here.
Academy Coach Matt Wright qualified to compete in three events at the 2022 British Swimming Championships held in Sheffield 5th – 10th April.
Matt swam in the 200m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle. He recorded personal best times of 52.59 seconds and 1:55.22 in the two freestyle races, setting new Club records in both events
Congratulations go to Lyla Howard and Matt Wright on being the Club’s first swimmers in 2022 to break Club records in their respective age groups.
Whilst these club records have to be claimed, it’s been heartening to see as we return to more regular competitions so many of our members achieving personal best times at the various recent Swim Meets held at Inspire, Hatfield etc. These are recorded automatically by British Swimming and may be viewed on the swimming.org website.
Not to be outdone by our younger swimmers, Colin Mayes and Dave Wright also broke two of the Club’s Masters records at the Bracknell Masters meet in March. Dave’s 200m Freestyle time was an improvement on his own Beds County record for the 60 -64 years’ age group.
Eleven Senior and five Junior County titles with 32 Gold, 26 Silver and 20 Bronze Individual Age Group medals. After the Covid-pandemic induced break in 2021, the return of the County championships also saw numerous personal best times. These were achieved over a range of strokes and distances not only by our more experienced swimmers but also those having their first taste of competition in a 50m pool against youngsters from all the other Bedfordshire clubs.
Read the detailed report and go to the Beds ASA website for the full results
Jo Mitchinson, Dave Wright and Graham Powell are all included in the World Top Ten Rankings for their Masters’ swims in the lists just released by FINA.
Jo was ranked 3rd (1500m Freestyle, ) 6th (400m Freestyle) and 7th (200m Backstroke) in the Ladies 40 – 44 years’ age group.
Dave claimed 6th spot in the Men’s 60 -64 years’ 200m Butterfly.
In the 65 – 69 years age group, Graham Powell was 5th (50m Back), 6th (100m Back) and 10th (200m Back).
FINA’s Top Ten relay listings were clearly incomplete, omitting all British club relay times from 2021. Other countries may also have been omitted but the English Nationals’ time recorded by Graham, Malcolm Barton, Dave and Alastair Gibb in their 240 – 279 years’ 400m Medley relay might have claimed them 5th spot. The combination of Dave, Alastair, Colin Mayes and Malcolm potentially also recorded the 8th fastest time for their 240 -279 years’ 800m Freestyle relay.
Team Luton won one gold, six silver and two bronze medals at the Welsh Open Masters Championships with Kelly Cooke breaking the club’s 45 – 49 years’ 200m Freestyle record as she stormed to victory.
Our Masters won a total of 2 Gold, 6 Silver and 7 Bronze medals whilst setting 5 East Region, 15 Beds County and a further 6 Club Masters records at the Swim England National Masters Championships.
Read here for further details of the individual and relay team successes.
Team Luton swimmers broke three East Region and seven County records at the East Region Masters championships held in Newmarket. Read here for a detailed report.
Six of our swimmers competed the Bracknell Masters Meet, collecting 16 medals and setting four more County Masters records. Read here for more details.
Congratulations to Jo Mitchinson on setting an East Region and 4 new Beds Masters records in the 40 – 44 years’ age group with her winning swims at the Welsh Masters Long Course Championships.
Jo’s 200m Freestyle time of 2:21.53 broke the East Region record by 6 seconds whilst her time of 2:47.62 in the 200m Butterfly set new figures for the County’s 40 – 44 years’ age group record. Her 100m splits of 1:20.82 and 1:08.23 were both new Beds records; Jo’s freestyle split breaking the record club mate Kelly Cooke had only set back in January.