26 June 17
More British records tumbled as a determined team of 11 masters swimmers descended on Aberdeen from 16-18th June to compete in the long course national championships. The meet started with a gold medal for Steve Metcalfe in the 1500m in an impressive 18.31 minutes, it was a close race with Steve in second place until the last 200m but he stayed strong, inching ahead with each 50 to finish 2 seconds ahead of his previously unbeaten rival! More medals followed in the afternoon session with gold medals for Dan Korcz and Alec Johnson, with Steve M adding to his tally with a silver medal in 100m backstroke. The 200m freestyle saw Phil Eccles do a cracking dive that put him ahead of the rest of his heat, Sam Milne achieve 2nd place and Paul Barnard effortlessly take gold. Straight out of their heat Sam and Paul were back behind the blocks to join Dan and Joe Keeley in the 4x100m medley relay aiming to beat the British record they narrowly missed out by just 1 second, but still came 1st in an impressive 4.15 minutes. Continuing the medal haul was Steve Barton getting a silver medal in 200m butterfly. Anyone that saw Steve's swim will know how much that last 50m hurt taking almost as many seconds! The 50m breastroke saw Joe swim a lifetime PB of 30.46 seconds winning a gold medal and Andy Cooper get a silver medal missing out on 1st place and a British record by just 0.01 seconds! Laura Bowden and Paul both had a great 200m IM with Paul taking 1st place 6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Day 2 started with the 400m freestyle with Sam and Paul battling it out in the same heat to both with gold in their age groups and Paul setting a new British record. After a cracking swim in the 1500m Steve M won his heat by a long way adding a bronze medal to his set and Laura just missed out on a medal position despite a great swim. More gold medals were won in the 50m backstroke for Dan with a PB, Alec who also broke the British record and Louisa Zolkiewski - the backstroke ledges definitely improved our starts! The 120-159 age 4x50m medley relay consisting of Dan, Andy, Phil and Steve B took gold in 1.53.92 minutes. The 100m butterfly had some tough competition in every age group with Phil holding on to gain a bronze medal. In the 50m freestyle Joe set a new long course PB, Louisa won gold with a new lifetime PB and Alec won another gold. The 4x50m freestyle relay was an extremely close race with Dan, Andy, Steve B and Joe giving their all. Half way down the last leg with Hemel Hempstead hit on his heels, Joe started to drop off allowing them to inch ahead, he held on but as they came into the finish HH were still ahead until the very last moment when Joe touched first, pipping them to 2nd place in the 72+ age group with a lifetime PB 24.50. The drama continued as over the tannoy came an announcement that our team had been disqualified for a technical infringement - further investigations concluded this was because the team had swum in the wrong order.... our in-house lawyer Dan went to contest this and thankfully the team were reinstated - phew! The Aberdeen team favoured step over relay takeovers - making for a very interesting watch as they stepped over the wedges into their starts - one for us to start practising now to get ahead of the field perhaps?! Our masters coach Bob has inspired a wave of swimmers to take on the 400m IM with Steve M going well under his 5.30 minute target to gain 2nd place and Paul winning his age group, setting a new PB and British record in 4.51 minutes along the way. With some fast swims from Sam, Joe, Dan and Phil in the 100m freestyle, Steve B fought hard to get a bronze medal and Louisa won another gold medal with a new lifetime PB in 1.03 minutes almost making a negative split. As the day of racing drew to a close, we dressed up and refuelled with plenty of beer and food - although after all the swimming for some the portions were a little underwhelming!
Into the final day and Paul, Joe, Dan and Sam faced the 4x200m freestyle relay in the 72+ age group. They put in an impressive swim to come in second place and Paul set a new British record in his age group for his opening leg in 1.58.80 minutes. Not content with this, Paul managed another gold medal in the 100m breastroke, with Andy coming second in his age group. The 200m backstroke produced another silver medal for Steve M and Alec set a new PB and British record in 2.29.49. Alec also went on to set a new British record in the 50m butterfly in 27.65, another PB, Louisa got a silver medal and new lifetime PB, and after a close race between Phil and Steve B they both got a silver and bronze medal respectively. As the day, and competition, drew to a close Laura just missed out on medal position in the 800m freestyle, and Paul and Steve M both won gold medals in their age groups.
Our small but strong team represented in almost every event and brought home 22 gold, 11 silver and 4 bronze medals between them along with 6 British records. Well done everyone and here's to more great things to come at short course championships in October!
