Thanks so much to Stu Clarke (ex BSSC Masters Coach, current Head Coach BSM Marlins, Oman) for his daily Facebook updates on the progress of our BSSC Masters at the Swim England Masters Short Course championships. We loved them so much, that we’ve posted them below along with a photo of the fabulous team who came 49th out of 271 clubs! Between them, the team brought home 8 Gold and 1 Silver medal, 12 top ten finishes and Alyson broke her GB age group record in the 100m Freestyle and three GB AND European records in the 50m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle and 100m IM!!! Wow!
Congratulations to Alex Catton, Alyson Fordham, Callum Davis, Dan Chada, Jake Lloyd, Joe Collins, Niamh James and Sally Winter.
—MASTERS NATIONALS DAY 1 UPDATE—
Awesome performances from the BSSC contingent on day 1 in Sheffield at the Swim England National Masters Short Course Champs.
Current British and European record holder Alyson Fordham did it again in the 65-69yrs 200m freestyle, breaking her own records (subject to verification on the Euro record!) to win GOLD in a time of 2.33! Club president Sally Winter also remained unbeaten at the championships in the 200m freestyle (over a 10 year period now!), winning GOLD in the 60-64yrs category with a time of 2.28!
In the 18-24yrs category, the BSSC swimmers were up against the Loughborough Uni team, featuring members of Team GB amongst its squad! There were still however top 6 finishes for Niamh James and Daniel Chada in the 100 back. Callum Davis was only 0.5secs off his pb in the 100 fly, with a fantastic time of 57.1 to finish 11th too, with the Loughborough team making a higher finish extremely difficult!
Coach Joe Collins swam a very solid 33.1 on the 50 breast whilst Jake Lloyd made his comeback with top 10 finishes in the 200 free and 100 fly.
On a side note, 91 year old swimming legend Jane Asher swam a time of 4mins 04secs in the 200m freestyle! Wow!
More fast swimming from our team tomorrow! Let’s go BSSC!
—MASTERS NATIONALS DAY 2 UPDATE—
More cracking swimming from the Stortford swimmers at the Masters Nationals!
After gold medal winning performances yesterday in the 200m freestyle, Alyson Fordham and Sally Winter were up again in the 400m freestyle today. Alyson, who broke the British record in the event earlier this year, beat her competition by 20 seconds to win another GOLD whilst Sally defended her title too with a second GOLD! Awesome job ladies! Alyson then went on to destroy her own EUROPEAN RECORD in the 50m freestyle, with a staggering time of 30.3 secs! What a fantastic swim!
There were more fireworks from some of the younger Stortford swimmers too, with Niamh James smashing her pb in the 50m freestyle (27.2!) to finish in a brilliant 6th place, beating several of the Loughborough team in the process! Callum Davis and Daniel Chada both went sub 25 secs in the 50m freestyle too, with Dan adding a 9th place finish in the 50m backstroke (28.5). Dan was just edged out by team mate Alex Catton by 0.1 secs, who finished in 8th with a time of 28.4 secs.
Callum Davis also took on the 200m butterfly, narrowly missing a medal in 4th place (2.18). Joe Collins rounded off proceedings with one of his quickest swims of the past few years in the 100m breaststroke, finishing in the top 20 with a time of 1.13.
Awesome swimming everyone! One more day of fast swimming to come. Let’s go BSSC!
—MASTERS NATIONALS DAY 3 UPDATE —
It was another ‘golden’ day for our Inspirational Masters squad in Sheffield! Alyson Fordham broke her own British record in the 100m freestyle, adding to her tally of five gold medals in total! What an incredible meet for Alyson!
Sally Winter added the 100m freestyle title in the age group below, herself now achieving the triple crown of 100, 200, and 400m freestyle titles!
Niamh James swam arguably her best swim of the meet, picking up a fantastic silver medal in the 18-24yrs category 200IM (2.23), beating several Open National level swimmers in the process. Jake Lloyd also took on the 200IM, finishing in a brilliant 5th place, proving that the comeback is well and truly ‘on’!
Long-standing member Callum Davis took on his favoured 50m fly, and he only narrowly missed out on a top 10 finish. Overall, he swam some brilliant swims though and should be very proud of his performances.
What a fantastic meet overall from our Masters stars! Congratulations everyone! Absolutely awesome!
