August 2017

Contents
Introduction
Masters Competition Programme for the rest of 2017
Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2017
New Records
The Club Scene
-- Beaver Masters
-- Flitwick Dolphins
-- South Beds Masters
-- Team Luton
East Region Masters Activities and News

Masters Competition Programme for the rest of 2017
The following are local competitions in the East Region and national competitions:-

1. FINA World Masters Swim, 14-20 August 2017 in Budapest, entry opening date January 2017
2. East Region Masters Champs at Newmarket, 1 October 2017
3. ASA National Masters at Sheffield, 27-29 October 2017
4. East Region Heat of the Masters Inter-County Competition at Newmarket, 12 November 2017.

Beds Masters Decathlon Challenge 2017
Rankings for 13 July 2017 are listed below. The National position is given in brackets.

The following table shows the leading women’s ranking at 13 July 2017

The leading Beds women’s teams :-

The following table shows the leading men’s ranking at 13 July 2017

The leading Beds men’s teams are ranked

New Records

There always seems to be an unbelievable number of new records. One reason for this is that there are many more records available for Masters than for young swimmers. Firstly there are records for 18 short course events and 17 long course events, there being no 100M IM in LC, making a total of thirty five.
As there are twelve age-groups for masters including seniors (18-24) and A - L (the oldest Beds swimmers being in the 75-79 age-group), we multiply up by twelve, making 420 records available.
Then there are 420 more regional records and 420 more national record (and 420 more European, 420 more World records available for current Beds Masters.).

Since March 2017, the following Beds Masters long course records have been set

The following Beds Masters short course records have been set.

The records were kindly supplied by John Bellis.

Please don’t forget to claim your new county and regional records or get your club representative to do group claims for you. Forms for making claims are online.

* Bedfordshire Masters Record Claims: www.bedscountyasa.com/ and follow the link to "Masters" and "Records". Send completed forms to John Bellis, email john.bellis123@btinternet.com

* East Region Masters Claims: www.eastswimming.org/ and follow the link to "Masters" and "Records". Send completed forms to David Robinson, email david.referee22@gmail.com

Beaver Masters
Training sessions continue as usual on Sundays at 9am at Trinity Sports and Leisure Centre, Bedford. Beds Masters are welcome to join us. Just pay at the door.
Beverley Rawlings and Daughter Andrea did a charity swim at the Trinity Sports and Leisure Centre fot the Little Marvels Charity. Details, for anybody wishing to contribute, are on the web – search for "Little Marvels St Neots".
Karen Rockell represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 21st World Transplant Games in Malaga in June 2017 in swimming. The facilities were great there. Lovely 50M pool.
Her results in the 60-69 years age group were as follows :- Gold in 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 50 back,100 Back and Silver 200 freestyle.
GB&NI came top of the table in both swimming and overall.
See http://wtgmalaga2017.com/en/the-games/medal-table/ It was an amazing trip.

Photo:- the medal ceremony for the 50 freestyle

Paul Clarke (75-79) has set 51 new county and regional records so far this year. Many of these were new unclaimed records for 75-79 year olds.
Report by Paul Clarke

Flitwick Dolphins
Flitwick Dolphin Liz Woolner competed in the British Masters Long Course Swimming Championships at the Aberdeen Sports Village from 16 to 18 June. She saved her best race for last and broke the British record for 50 fly in the women's 50-54 age group with a swim of 30.72s in the last session of the meet. She also got a gold in the 100 fly, 2 silvers (50 free & back) and 2 bronze (100 & 200 free) and broke East Region records in the 50, 100 & 200 free and the 50 back (and of course the 50 fly).
Here she is with her special British record gold medal.

Report by Liz Woolner

Team Luton
"New kids on the blocks" have brought the current number of active members who are County record holders to twelve. Nicola Pasquire (19) set new figures for the 800m F/s at the Barnet Copthall Distance meet whilst Michael Poynton (27) broke the 100m IM record at Erith’s meet where he won three out of his four events on his Masters debut. With Alex Mason (20) winning all four of his Seniors debut events at Barnet, the "youngsters" are looking to keep the more seasoned members on their toes.
For the time being it is the relative "oldies", Dave Wright, Alastair Gibb, Graham Powell and Colin Mayes who hold the top four places for the Men’s team decathlon. As Malcolm Barton continues to recover from his snowboarding injury, John O’Rourke, Alex and Michael could all yet be in the final mix come the end of the year. Our Ladies meanwhile are in their highest ranked position nationally, from so far only 18 qualifying races, thanks to Karen MacKenzie, Lorraine Sadler, Glenda Mayes and Sharon Thompson (nee Collins).
Ten GB medals (2 Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze) were won by the squad of six who flew up to swim at the magnificent facilities in Aberdeen. Graham successfully defended his 50m and 100m Backstroke titles whilst Karen set new County figures in each of her four races, bagging a silver medal in the 50m Backstroke, despite being at the top end of her age group. Although only finishing in 7^th place Sharon knocked nearly nine seconds off her PB in the 400m Freestyle.

Graham, Karen and Colin are all off to Budapest for the World Masters championships.

Away from the pool, Dave Wright finished 2^nd in the East Region’s 50-59 years’ 3k Open Water champs whilst Nicola finished 4^th in the 17-19 years’ 5k, subsequently coming in 9^th at the Nationals. These were comparative "sprints" compared to the 26k swim that Gwen Skingley completed in nine and a half hours swimming in Lake Zurich, much to the admiration of her team –mates. Gwen (35) collected her first Masters "pool" medals at the start of the year. As Lorraine Sadler can attest, after competing at Barnet in her first competitive Masters 200m IM, "it’s all in the taking part"!

British Masters Championships, Aberdeen
The region was well represented by swimmers across all age groups. The first gold medal of the meet was claimed by Stuart McLellan (Sudbury, 65-69) in 1500m freestyle. A number of other regional swimmers were also crowned British Champion including: Graham Powell (Team Luton), Pat Jackson (East), Stephen Ham (Rochford), Matt Banham (West Suffolk), Janet Masters (South Beds), Liz Woolner (Flitwick) and the Hemel Hempstead 72-99 mixed relay team. Congratulations to all the East region medallists!

Meet reports? News to report? Please email masters@eastswimming.org with anything that you wish to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter or website.

Decathlon Competition for the East Region
Following the initial decathlon announcement, and discussions with the National Masters committee, the terms for the competition have been updated to include the senior (18-24) age group. All points accrued this year will count.

.East Region Masters Decathlon 2017 current standings (as of 17th July):

A change at the top of the ladies standing with Katie Holmes now just ahead of Pat Jackson and Liz Wollner. Chris Dunn continues to lead the male standings, with Dave Cartledge moving into 2nd ahead of Sudbury's Stuart McLellan.

With more competition results now in, the team standings have changed significantly with new leaders in both the ladies and men's competitions. Newmarket lead the ladies competition and Brentwood are currently in pole position for the men's competition.

East Region Masters Championships
Sunday 1st October 2017 at Newmarket Leisure Centre
ENTRIES NOW OPEN!
With a wide range of events, this is a chance to improve your standing in the decathlon rankings. All entry is on-line and can be reached via this link: Please note times can be used for qualifying for the National Masters Championship Entry

Information Extracted from - East Region Masters Swimming Update - July 2017