Six swims from just two Masters Meets were enough to catapult Matt Wright into third place in the 2023 Beds Decathlon competition as our Men once more remained the highest ranking team in the County. Karen retained her position as our highest ranking female, once again claiming fifth place in the County.
In what was his last year of representing Team Luton following his permanent relocation to Cornwall it was rather fitting to see Malcolm Barton once again feature in the Club’s top four. He thereby assisted the Men in claiming second spot to Team Anglia in the East Region’s Top Men’s team competition. Despite their advancing years both Malcolm and Alastair Gibb achieved their highest personal decathlon score for some time.
Dave Wright’s swim in the November Inter County Masters’ competition was just sufficient to see him claim the fourth spot overtaking John O’Rourke and Sam Bradley who had jostled for that position throughout the year. It also saw Dave complete his unbroken run in the Decathlon of featuring every year in the Club’s top four highest ranking males.
| BEDS RANKING 2023 (2022) | GB RANKING 2023 (2022) | NAME | AGE (2023) | 2023 POINTS (NO. OF EVENTS) | 2022 POINTS (NO.OF EVENTS) | 2020/21 POINTS (NO. OF EVENTS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd (-) | 149th (-) | Matthew Wright | 25 | 3,653 (6) | ||
| 4th (5th) | 174th (152nd) | Alastair Gibb | 63 | 3,499 (10) | 3,310 (10) | 3,413 (10) |
| 6th (13th) | 336th (517th) | Malcolm Barton | 68 | 2,699 (9) | 2,115 (7) | 1,840 (5) |
| 10th (4th) | 540th (116th) | Dave Wright | 62 | 2,207 (5) | 3,561 (8) | 3,126 (7) |
| 13th (12th) | 700th (499th) | John O'Rourke | 54 | 1,888 (8) | 2,154 (9) | |
| 14th (15th) | 731st (601st) | Sam Bradley | 30 | 1,849 (10) | 1,964 (10) | 1,685 (8) |
| 15th (14th) | 797th (537th) | Colin Mayes | 68 | 1,761 (5) | 2,073 (5) | 2,038 (5) |
| 24th (2nd) | 1,407th (22nd) | Graham Powell | 67 | 1,057 (2) | 5,208 (10) | 2,145 (4) |
For a variety of reasons, our female representation and total number of qualifying races at Masters meets was somewhat depleted compared to prior years, as was the case with their male counterparts.
Karen nevertheless less took the bait that was thrown down, seeing her complete the full quota of ten events and achieve her highest personal total points score since 2019. The trio of Karen ,Jo and Michelle still managed to secure the fourth highest total of Beds Ladies in the female team competition. Their points total would have been marginally higher as Kelly Cooke’s only Masters’ competitive swims in January 2023 were completed as a Team Luton swimmer but attributed to Truro (as she has also relocated to Cornwall).
| BEDS RANKING 2023 (2022) | GB RANKING 2023 (2022) | NAME | AGE (2023) | 2023 POINTS (NO. OF EVENTS) | 2022 POINTS (NO. OF EVENTS) | 2020/21 POINTS (NO. OF EVENTS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th (5th) | 127th (100th) | Karen MacKenzie | 50 | 3,650 (10) | 3,560 (9) | 1,621 (4) |
| 10th (-) | 550th (-) | Jo Mitchinson | 44 | 1,844 (4) | 3,196 (6) | |
| 17th (16th) | 949th (625th) | Michelle Neal | 43 | 1,147 (3) | 1,571 (4) | 1,472 (4) |
| (-) (11th) | (-) (351st) | Kelly Cooke | 47 | 2,203 (5) | 1,781 (4) | |
| (-) (21st) | (-) (875th) | Lorraine Sadler | 52 | 1,138 (5) | ||
| (-) (26th) | (-) (1,369th) | Sharon Thompson | 56 | 415 (2) | ||
| Alice Pinney | 24 | 1,330 (4) | ||||
| Laura Smith | 29 | 1,120 (3) |