Following the tremendous news that our Men’s Team finished in 10th place in the GB Team Decathlon Competition, the individual performances of all our competitive Masters in 2017 have been analysed.
Graham Powell and Karen MacKenzie were once more our highest ranked swimmers in the County but the year saw 8 of our male swimmers finish in the County’s Top 30 and 5 of our Ladies in the Women’s Top 30, even though none of them swum the maximum number of ten qualifying events.
Full data is given in the table below but in a year when a number of our swimmers of both sexes were “missing” from competition, – for many months due to a combination of illnesses and / or injuries – performances worthy of particular mention are:
**Alex Mason making a great impact in his first year of competing in Seniors (18 – 24 years) events, the “transition” age group into Masters swimming.
**Michael Poynton making his competitive debut as a Master. Only competing at one meet, Michael now knows the aim is to swim against the clock even if one is being out swum by younger swimmers!
**Amy Pelling in her first year as a Senior helping catapult our Ladies Team to 118th nationally, their best ever placing and third in the County.
**Gwen Skingley overcoming nerves for her first competitive pool swims, having been more accustomed to open water swims (without a wetsuit, regardless of the water temperatures).
With just one swim Nicola Pasquire joined Alex and Michael in the Beds Masters & Seniors record books. This brought the total number of our current squad members with County Masters / Seniors records (as at the end of 2017) to 13, holding 38 Short Course and 47 Long Course between them.
The data shows that, whilst we may get older, our swimming by comparison (based on the decathlon points formulae) may continue to improve…even when we might record slower times!
| Beds County Ranking |
Name | Age | Decathlon Points (No. of races) | GB Decathlon Ranking | |||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||
| 2 | 3 | 3 | Graham Powell | 61 | 5,349 (10) | 5,279 (10) | 5,121 (10) | 33 | 29 | 33 | |
| 3 | – | – | Alex Mason | 21 | 5,041 (10) | – | – | 49 | – | – | |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | Dave Wright | 56 | 4,267 (10) | 4,215 (10) | 3,810 (9) | 104 | 98 | 124 | |
| 5 | 5 | 4 | Alastair Gibb | 57 | 4,204 (10) | 4,117 (10) | 4,110 (10) | 110 | 106 | 94 | |
| 8 | 10 | 9 | Colin Mayes | 62 | 3,089 (7) | 2,882 (7) | 3,280 (8) | 264 | 318 | 214 | |
| 11 | 12 | 16 | John O’Rourke | 48 | 2,498 (10) | 2,691 (10) | 2,212 (9) | 437 | 375 | 563 | |
| 20 | – | – | Michael Poynton | 1,869 (4) | – | – | 780 | – | – | ||
| 23 | 20 | – | Jonathan Pennell | 25 | 1,405 (4) | 2,250 (6) | – | 1,128 | 589 | – | |
| – | 9 | 15 | Malcolm Barton | 62 | – | 2,884 (10) | 2,252 (7) | – | 317 | 542 | |
| – | 15 | 19 | Mark Wareham | 46 | – | 2,512 (7) | 1,977 (5) | – | 453 | 725 | |
| – | 33 | – | Darren Hale | 46 | – | 1,328 (4) | – | – | 1,321 | – | |
| – | – | 35 | Ian Norman | 48 | – | – | 409 (2) | – | – | 2,075 | |
| Beds County Ranking |
Name | Age | Decathlon Points (No. of races) | GB Decathlon Ranking | |||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||
| 9 | 16 | – | Karen MacKenzie | 44 | 2,736 (7) | 2,154 (6) | – | 272 | 458 | – | |
| 18 | – | – | Amy Pelling | 19 | 1,541 (5) | – | – | 751 | – | – | |
| 21 | 26 | 25 | Glenda Mayes | 61 | 1,218 (5) | 1,151 (4) | 872 (3) | 983 | 1,106 | 1,181 | |
| 27 | 22 | – | Lorraine Sadler | 46 | 884 (4) | 1,477 (6) | – | 1,265 | 864 | – | |
| 30 | 42 | – | Gwen Skingley | 35 | 780 (4) | 165 (1) | – | 1,350 | 1,978 | – | |
| 31 | 31 | – | Sharon Thompson | 50 | 704 (3) | 863 (4) | – | 1,409 | 1,347 | – | |
| 34 | – | – | Nicola Pasquire | 19 | 602 (1) | – | – | 1,475 | – | – | |
| – | 28 | 24 | Eloise Turner | 45 | – | 1,004 (4) | 964 (4) | – | 1,223 | 1,100 | |