A small team of five Masters from Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club attended the British Nationals at the London Olympic Aquatic Centre from Friday, June 13, to Sunday, June 15.
Qualification to swim at Nationals is tough and the competition over the weekend was tougher with many World, European and British records being set. Swimming with the best of the UK’s swimmers our small team secured several top 5 placings and a team Bronze:
- Liberty Regan competing in the 18-24 age group, attending her first Masters National competition, swam two events with two Long Course PB’s in the 50 Back and 100 Frontcrawl.
- Russ Simpson (60-64) also competed in two events over the weekend, just missing out on a PB in the 50 Breastroke by 0.05 seconds.
- Mark Ayres (65-69) took on three individual swims, with PB’s in the 50 Breastroke and 100 Butterfly, securing two 4th and a 5th place.
- Sian MacDonald (60-64) started her weekend of swimming with the 1500 and went on to secure two Silvers, a 4th and 6th place swim.
- Hilary Coulson (55-59) swimming the 50 Backstroke on PB, took on the 100 Back in the 4×100 Mixed Medley Relay (200+) with Sian swimming Breastroke, Mark on Butterfly and Shane Coulson bringing home the Bronze on Frontcrawl. A great result for the team with a combined age of 221 years.
The club shared: “Great results and a great weekend of swimming in an amazing venue. We look forward to our larger team attending Sheffield Nationals in October.”
On Sunday, June 1, the Masters also took part in the Herts Masters County meet at the Hemel Hempstead pool.
Seventeen of the masters swimmers were competing against 12 clubs from around Hertfordshire. Every swim from our small team contributed to the fantastic result, finishing in an impressive 2nd place just 36 points behind winners STAM, 267 points ahead of 3rd place team, Berkhamsted.
Many of the swimmers were competing in five individual events as well as relays, this meant a very short break between swims, sometimes finishing a race and going back to the start for the next race.
Top point scorers for the club were Ellie O’Keeffe and Kevin McKenna, both swimming five individual events earning 40 and 38 points for the club, closely followed by Mark Ayres and Heidi Lisher with 37 and 34 points.
An impressive 56 of the 71 individual swims took a top 3 placing with a total of 20 Golds, 21 Silver and 15 Bronze. This included Olivia Reeve who was competing at her first gala, swam five Personal Bests and took two podium spots.
Heidi, Jo, Bev, Oli, Dom, Oliver and Russ all swam new Age Group PBs.
The evening ended with nine Relay events with four of the teams becoming County Champions, bringing to an end an exciting evening of swimming from the best of Hertfordshire’s Masters.
Speaking about the Herts Masters County, the club said: “Massive congratulations go out to the whole team, Liberty Regan, Emily Presland, Ellie O’Keefe, Olivia Reeve, Hannah Smee, Heidi Lisher, Jo Lee-Pearce, Hilary Coulson, Beverlee McKenna, Oli Burrough, Dom Kelly, Oliver Brawn, Dan Capozzi, Matt Rafiq-Craske, Kevin McKenna, Russ Simpson, Mark Ayres and Masters Coach, Richard Daniell.”
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