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. There are different Masters membership price plans based on your chosen attendance hours.
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.
2021 FINA World Top 10 Masters
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
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!
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
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.
World Beating Masters
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
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.
