Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club

Affiliated to Swim England East Region

Masters squad

BSSC has a vibrant, fun and welcoming Masters squad with swimmers aged 18 to 60+. We have a wide range of abilities with fitness swimmers wanting the incentive of a regular, motivating training programme, competitive triathletes and open water swimmers striving to enhance their swim performance and competitive European and World Masters swimmers. The squad is offered seven coached pool sessions each week across two different local pools.

If you’d like to explore joining our Masters squad please contact our Membership Secretary, Linda Harold

The photos and articles below show the variety of events attended and achievements gained by our Masters squad, from the more social aspects of Swim Serpentine, Marathon Swims and charity galas, to representing Hertfordshire in Intercounty competitions and winning medals and breaking records at National and International competitions.

Masterful Start to 2022 for a Trio of BSSC Masters

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The 2022 season has kicked off in style for three of our Masters.  Having celebrated their 2021 successes with FINA World Top 10 Rankings, Elizabeth Bellinger and Alyson Fordham both recently competed at the Essex Masters Championships.  Lizzie, the current British and European record holder in the 40-44yr age group, demolished the field to take gold in the 100m butterfly (1:08.18).  Alyson was on sizzling form in her 65-69yr group, dominating the three events she had entered, taking gold in the 50m and 200m freestyle in new European record times (30.93 and 2:34.06), and gold in the 400m freestyle with a new British record (5:29.40). 

Lizzie also was in great form at the 2022 Swim Wales Masters Championships, taking gold in 50m butterfly, and silver in both the 100m freestyle and 200m IM.

Sally’s recent trip to the Calverton and Bingham Masters competition in Nottinghamshire resulted in two golds in the 50m and 200m freestyle and overall 3rd place female in the 60/64 age group from only two races!

Late April, Alyson and Lizzie headed to the Newmarket Masters Open Meet and again dominated every race they entered. Lizzie took gold in the 100m butterfly and 200m IM with the fastest times recorded in Britain in her age group in the past 12 months. Alyson also took three golds in the 200m freestyle, 100m IM and 100m freestyle, with the 100m IM and 100m freestyle times also being new British Records.

Focus for this fabulous trio now moves to the British Masters Championships in June and the European Masters Championships in August.

2021 FINA World Top 10 Masters

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Despite 2021 being yet another year of extremely restricted training and limited competition opportunities, three BSSC Masters have been named in the recently released 2021 FINA World Masters Top 10 Short Course (25m) Rankings.  Elizabeth Bellinger (40-44yrs), Sally Winter (60-64yrs) and Alyson Fordham (65-69yrs) all secured multiple world top 10 finishes in their age groups.  Sally and Alyson also still feature on the FINA All Time top 10 rankings in their age groups, with Sally having the 9th and 10th fastest ever 200m freestyle swims (short course and long course respectively) and Alyson holding the 8th fastest short course 100m freestyle swim.

FINA World Masters Top Ten Rankings:

  • Elizabeth Bellinger: 4th 100m Butterfly, 6th 50m Butterfly, 10th 200m IM 
  • Sally Winter: 5th 100m Freestyle, 9th 200m Freestyle
  • Alyson Fordham: 5th 50m Freestyle

Medals Galore as BSSC Masters Storm the Nationals

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29th – 31st October saw the return of the Swim England National Masters Swimming Championships, held in Sheffield. Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club (BSSC) trio, Sally Winter, Lizzie Bellinger, and Callum Davis excelled at the competition, coming away with some fantastic results!

Lizzie Bellinger, Callum Davis & Sally Winter

The evergreen Sally Winter won a hat trick of titles in the freestyle events, coming away with golds in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events.  Her 400m freestyle time of 5:19.37 was also an East Region record by 30 seconds! 

Lizzie Bellinger continued her dominance in the butterfly events, adding two more golds in the 50m and 100m butterfly. She added further success in the 100m backstroke, setting a new East Region record with a brilliant time of 1:13.70!  She added a fourth gold medal in the 200m IM, as well as snatching a silver in the 100m IM, ending the Championships with five medals from five events!

Callum Davis showed massive promise in the butterfly and freestyle events, coming away with several top 10 finishes. In a field consisting of several top British National open swimmers (many of whom were from the Loughborough National Performance Centre), Callum came away with a brilliant PB of 24.8s in the 50m freestyle, as well as finishing 7th in the 100m fly (58.66s) and 7th in the 50m fly (25.83s).

Golden Time for BSSC Masters

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Sunday 10th October 2021 saw four BSSC Masters head to Newmarket Leisure Centre for the first Swim England East Region Masters Championships since 2019.  Two of them had featured on the FINA World Masters Top 10 Rankings for 2020, even with limited swimming opportunities, so our expectations were high and they certainly delivered! 

Eight swims resulted in an amazing eight gold medals!  Eleanor Mason (18/24 Yrs) kicked off proceedings with gold in 400m Freestyle; Lizzie Bellinger (40/44 Yrs) won the 100m Butterfly & 100m IM; Pete Kelleway (60/64 Yrs) won the 50m Backstroke, 50m Freestyle & 100m IM; and Alyson Fordham (65/69 Yrs) won the 50m & 100m Freestyle.  Alyson’s 50m freestyle time of 32.82 smashed the East Region record by 5 seconds and was just 0.4 seconds short of the British record.  It’s great to see them in action again and we look forward to their next performances.

Alyson Fordham, Lizzie Bellinger & Pete Kelleway

World Beating Masters

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Three BSSC Masters swimmers have been named in the 2020 FINA World Masters Top 10 Rankings.  Despite limited competition opportunities in the UK compared to many other Countries, Elizabeth Bellinger (40-44yrs), Alyson Fordham (60-64yrs) and Sally Winter (60-64yrs) secured multiple top 10 finishes in their age groups.

Lizzie was first in the world long course rankings for 50/100m butterfly, whilst Sally (BSSC Club President) was first in short and long course 200m freestyle.