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.

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.

BSSC Masters Shine at Frank Rider Masters Charity Gala

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A 15-strong team of Bishop’s Stortford swimmers competed for the first time in the Frank Rider charity event hosted by Erith & District Swimming Club on Sunday 15th March. Other teams competing were Saxon Crown SC, Kent Weald SC and two teams from Erith SC.

Many swimmers from BSSC were competing for the first time in 20+ years and for a couple it was their first taste of competitive swimming. We were also delighted to have a few of our senior (18-25yr) swimmers join us in their first taste of Masters swimming. Nerves ran high and during the warm up, the younger swimmers were helping others with race starts and relay take overs.

The event consisted of mainly relay events, including a Butterfly 4 x 50m race and a Backstroke 4 x 50m relay. All were mixed age group so we had 18 year olds swimming with 60 year olds and a 25m race for every age group on all strokes except front crawl. We had 3 joker rounds but sadly only one 1st place – the Mens 18+ (50m) and 60+ (25m) combined backstroke event swam by Callum Davis and Peter Kelleway.

BSSC finished 3rd with 117, 2 points behind Saxon Crown 115 and Erith A just won with 111. (Lowest score wins, with Saxon Crown having a 40 point handicapped head start).

A great evening was had by young and old and all agreed we would be back next year. A total of £289 was raised for Breast Cancer charity.

Golden Time at Swim Wales

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BSSC Masters competition regular, Elizabeth Bellinger, pulled out of the Febrary Sudbury Masters event with an injury, but although still in recovery, she managed to compete in the Swim Wales Masters Long Course Championships in Swansea over the St David’s Day weekend.

Lizzie took Gold in all four events she entered, bettering her entry times on three events and improving two of the East Region records she already held. Congratulations!

Gold 200m IM (2:39.04)
Gold 50m Fly (PB, 30.17)
Gold 100m Free (PB, 1:04.50)
Gold 100m Fly (PB, 1:07.15)

Record Breaking Gold Rush for BSSC Masters at Sudbury

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On 16th Feb, four fabulous BSSC Masters headed to Sudbury for the 25th Valentines Open Meet. David Kelleway (25-29Yrs), Peter Kelleway (60-64Yrs), Helen Shingler (50-54Yrs) and Sally Winter (60-64Yrs) were all in stunning form, taking gold medals in every event they entered and also getting lots of personal best times. Having recently achieved some European Long Course records in her new age group, Sally Winter bagged a short course European Record at Sudbury, taking nearly 3 seconds off the old 200m Free record!! Congratulations to them all.

Results are below:

David Kelleway (25-29Yrs)
Gold in all 5 events
53.50 100m Free
25.25 50m Free
1:02.64 100m Fly
26.74 50m Fly
2:07.35 200m Free

Pete Kelleway (60-64Yrs)
Gold in all 5 events
33.75 50m Back
1:05.63 100m Free
2:46.13 200m IM
1:15.42 100m Back
1:15.26 100m IM

Helen Shingler (50-54Yrs)
Gold 3:04.81 200m IM

Sally Winter (60-64Yrs)
Gold (European Record!) 2:25.83 200m Free

Winter Smashes British & European Records

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Reaching a milestone birthday can sometimes be advantageous, and BSSC Masters swimmer and Club President, Sally Winter recently proved that point.  January 1st saw Sally move up into the 60-64 years Masters age group, and at her first 2020 Long Course (50m pool) competition in Crawley on the weekend of 18/19th January she was in record smashing form.  First up was the 100m Free where she took Gold in a British Masters record time of 1:08.51, more than a second inside the existing British record and only 0.3 seconds outside the European record.  On Sunday she went one better in the 200m Free, smashing the British Masters record by 2.5 seconds and taking the European Masters record by 1 second, in a time of 2:30.78.  Focus for this season now turns to the British Nationals in April and the European Masters Championships in June.  Good luck Sally!