World and European records tumble for Trafford masters swimmers at national championships

 

Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield hosted the British Masters short course swimming championships last weekend where Trafford Metro swimmers excelled once again.

 

The 3 day meet resulted in the following medals

19 Gold

25 Silver

12 Bronze

With a host of 4^th and 5^th placing In the relay races.

 

The men's combined age 160+ finished third. In the same age the ladies medley and freestyle relay teams won silver as did the mixed medley team age 200+. The men's 160+ won gold for the freestyle relay and the British and European records were smashed out of sight by the mixed 240+ freestyle relay team paring a huge 5 seconds off the previous national record and over 2.5 seconds off the European record previously held by AC Boulogne of France. Neil McKinnon led off the team handing over to Rachael Barton. Jill Jones swam the third leg and Alan Rowson brought the team home in fine style.

 

Star of the show in the individual events was once again Rachael Barton who won gold in each of the 5 events entered. Rachael broke her own British and European record in the 50m freestyle paring off 16 hundredths of a second to set a new mark of 31.23 seconds for the 60-64 age category. Rachael then went on to break the world record in the 100m freestyle lowering the time to 1min 9.10secs, a huge 1.43 seconds better than the previous record. Rachael also took gold in the 100m and 50m backstroke as well as the 50m butterfly. 50 year old Graham Sadler took gold in the 100 and 50m freestyle and the 50 butterfly to accompany a silver in the 100 medley. Neville Barton collected gold in the 1500, 200, 100 and 50m freestyle events along with a 50m breaststroke gold and silver in the 400m freestyle and 100m breaststroke for 55-60 year olds. Evergreen Neil McKinnon aged 67 showed his all round ability winning the 100medley and 50 backstroke as well as gaining silver in the 200IM and 50 breaststroke. For the ladies Jill Jones 200 Butterfly swim earned her a gold that was matched by Lucy Lloyd-Roach’s 100m butterfly swim. Jill also won silver in the 100 freestyle and butterfly and bronze for 400 and 50m freestyle. Lucy also took bronze in the 25-30 category for 50m butterfly. 47 year old Alec Johnson won silver for 100 and 50m butterfly. Distance specialist Dave Randall had to swim further than everyone else to win his silver medals in the 200m butterfly, 400m medley and 800 freestyle. Dave also picked up bronze medals for the 200 backstroke and 400m freestyle. Club President and oldest competitive member John Anderson bagged 4 silvers at the sprightly age of 72 for 200m breaststroke, 200m medley, 50 butterfly and 800 freestyle. Helen Sadler won silver in 200m and 100m freestyle and 50 backstroke to go with bronze in the 200 back and 50 freestyle. Richard Symons took silver and bronze in the 400 and 100 medley respectively as did Jo Bolton in the 50m and 200m breaststroke. 40 year old Steve Harding collected the remaining silver in the 100medley whilst Neale Sayle and Paul Longland bagged the remaining bronze medals for the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle. In addition to the medallists there was a whole host of great performances from all our swimmers  Once again the Masters section of Trafford Metro have cemented their reputation as one of the countries leading Masters swimming groups and top performers at the championships.