September has come and after a brief respite for the Masters their competitive calendar year resumed with trips to Maidenhead and Barnet.
They gave a chance for some of our younger and recent recruits to lay down marker times whilst for others the opportunity to get in race practice ahead of the National Championships in late October.
Read here for details of their individual and relay successes.
Unseasonably cool temperatures prevailed for the East Region Open Water 2024 Championships held at Whittlingham. All ten of the Club’s members, covering over a fifty-year age range, are to be congratulated on their endeavours away from the pool.
Congratulations to our youngsters on retaining their Arena Junior Bedfordshire League Championship title.
The Masters squad had its largest representation of the year (so far) at the Barnet Distance Meet, complete with “debutants” and “bandits”. Three Masters Club records were broken and a new Beds County Mixed Relay record was established. Everyone gave a good account of themselves with a theoretic* medal haul of 10 Golds, 7 Silver and 2 Bronze and three 4th place finishes.
Read here for further details.
*At Barnet’s Masters Swim Meets medals can be swapped for vouchers donating to the Teenagers Cancer Trust charity
Allow eight of our swimmers were on personal best form with Tommy Fenwick collecting a silver and a bronze medal on the final weekend in Norwich. Emily Calvert meanwhile broke a Club age group record that had been set over twenty years ago.
Tommy Fenwick, Lexie Sandiford, Talia Staines and Matt Wright all won medals as the second weekend of the East Region Long Course championships moved to Norwich.
Matt Wright won the Men’s 100m Freestyle with four other of our swimmers also recording personal best times. Read here for a detailed report of the first weekend’s events.
Five new Club Masters Records were established at the annual Bracknell meet, four of which fell to Sam Bradley, whilst six of the nine medals won in eleven races by the trio representing Team Luton came from Backstroke events. Read the full report here.
The final day of the 2024 County Championships brought our cumulative total for the 2024 campaign to 61 gold, 25 silver and 20 bronze medals, with over 200 top 8 placings.
Points based on individual times across the whole spectrum of swim events generated the British Age Group Awards given at the conclusion of the championships. Further congratulations are therefore due to Alice and Tommy on winning the Girls 11 years’ and Boys 13 years’ categories, Ruth, 2nd in the 10 year girls with Emily and George both third in the 14 year age group.
The day was not just about individual medal winners. More personal best times, finals reached and the last of the team events. Read here for a detailed report on Day 6.
With twenty-four more age group medals and a further nine County Senior or Junior top three placings, Day 5 was arguably our best performance so far in the 2024 championships. Alice Buckingham and Matt Wright both won three more individual events. It was also the time for others to experience Championship competition for the first time as the relays once again saw medals won and lost by the narrowest of margins.
A detailed report may be read here.
