Beds ASA Masters Newsletter April 2022

Introduction

I would like to start my first newsletter by thanking Paul Clarke for all the great work he has done for masters swimming in Bedfordshire over the last 10 years. Even though we are a small county it feels like we have the most active masters swimming community in the East Region and without doubt this wouldn’t have happened without all Paul’s efforts. Thank you Paul.

Now let me introduce myself to those of you who don’t already know me. My name is Liz Woolner and I’m a masters swimmer at Flitwick Dolphins. I’m the one on the right. I started competitive swimming at a young age at Welwyn Garden City SC but soon moved on to Hatfield. I carried on swimming through my teenage and university years before moving to Bedford in 1990. There I joined Modernians and competed in masters’ meets until my late 20s. After a 17-year break to live abroad and have children I returned to competitive swimming in 2013 when I joined Flitwick Dolphins. I love racing as long as the distance is short and it doesn’t involve breaststroke. I like travelling to meets and have been to British championships all over the UK and the World Championships in Budapest in 2017.

As part of my Beds ASA Masters secretary role, I represent Bedfordshire in the Swim England East Region Masters Leadership Group. I chose this photo because it also includes Louise Mackie who leads the East Region group. My white trousers show that, in addition to swimming, I also do quite a lot of officiating at swimming competitions.

Upcoming Masters Competitions

Here’s an overview of the upcoming competitions that I’m aware of. Most (but not all) can be found in the Swim England masters swimming calendar:

Masters Swimming Events | The latest UK Masters swimming events

For those of you that enjoy racing long distances in cold, murky water entries are now open for the East Region Open Water Championships on Sunday 10 July at Whitlingham Country Park in Norwich. There are medals for masters age groups up to 60+:

Open Water Competitions - Swim England East Region (eastswimming.org)

Masters Records 2022

Up to 21 March, 56 new Beds Masters Records have been set – 20 long course (LC) and 36 short course (SC). Congratulations to:

• Paul Clarke, Bedford Beavers: 15 LC, 18 SC

• Ian Murray, Flitwick Dolphins: 3 LC

• Sarah Pearse, South Beds Masters: 2 LC

• Liz Woolner, Flitwick Dolphins: 10 SC

• Mike Outtram, Flitwick Dolphins: 4 SC

• Susan Evans, Biggleswade: 2 SC

• Dave Wright, Team Luton: 1 SC

• Joe Lound-Keast, Biggleswade: 1 SC

Ten of Paul’s LC records and 1 SC record have also been ratified as East Region Masters Records (latest records published 10 March) along with 4 SC records for Liz.

The latest records should be on the Beds ASA website:

Masters - BEDFORDSHIRE ASA (bedscountyasa.com)

However, it is proving to be a challenge to keep the current website information up to date. Hopefully when the new county website is up and running later in the year this will become much easier. In the meantime, here are the latest records for anyone who’d like to see them:

If you think you have broken a record please complete this form and send it to John Bellis, the keeper of the records. His contact details are in the form.

Masters World Rankings 2021

Many congratulations to the following Beds masters who made the FINA World Short Course Top Ten Rankings in 2021:

Carla King (South Beds): W35-39 7^th 50 breast

Jo Mitchinson (Luton): W40-44 6^th 400 free, 3^rd1500 free, 7^th 200 back

Liz Woolner (Flitwick): W50-54 5^th 50 fly, 8^th 100 fly

Janet Masters (South Beds): W80-84 5^th 50 back, 4^th 100 back, 4^th 50 fly, 6^th 100 IM, 6^th 200 IM

Marcel Scholten (Modernians): M55-59 10^th 100 breast

David Wright (Luton): M60-64 6^th 200 fly

Graham Powell (Luton): M65-69 4^th 50 back, 6^th 100 back, 10^th 200 back

Which brings us nicely on to the ….

Beds ASA Masters Honours List

Beds ASA Masters Honours (freeuk.com)

This honours list is for outstanding achievements at national and international level. Swimmers will be added to the list for setting British, European or World records, for coming in the top 3 at a FINA World Championships or for achieving a top 3 ranking in the FINA World Rankings.

Congratulations to Jo Mitchinson who will be added to the Honours List for her top 3 world ranking in 2021.

Masters Decathlon

All masters swimmers in Great Britain are automatically entered into the Masters Decathlon. Swimmers’ performances from masters competitions throughout the year are assigned points then an overall score for each swimmer calculated based on their top points scores from 10 of the 18 possible individual events. At least one event must be swum in each of the six groups of events: sprint freestyle, distance freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley.

More details can be found on:

Masters Decathlon | British Masters swimmers ranked across 10 events (swimming.org)

Nationally, prizes are awarded to the top 10 women and men and the top women’s and men’s teams. In the East Region trophies are awarded to the top 3 in each category. And in Bedfordshire we have trophies for the top woman and top man.

The national leader boards can be found on:

Masters Decathlon | Swim England (swimmingresults.org)

It is still not clear what is happening with the 2020 and 2021 decathlons which were, of course, interrupted by Covid-19. Hopefully we will eventually be given some clarity. There is also no sign yet of the 2022 decathlon scoreboard but that shouldn’t put anyone off getting those 10 swims completed. Once the scoreboard is up and running I will include Bedfordshire leader boards in the newsletters.

Swim England East Region Masters Development Day

I mentioned the Swim England East Region Masters Leadership Group in my introduction. In addition to organising the East Region Masters Championships and the East Region heat of the Inter-County Masters competition, the group organises development activities for masters swimmers.

The most recent event took place on Sunday 27 March at the fantastic new Oundle School Sports Centre. My Flitwick teammate Rachael Stevenson and I attended along with other masters from all over the East Region and beyond. After an introduction to the day, we had a fascinating talk from a psychologist on techniques to deal with race day nerves and how to use them to improve performance. This was followed by a practical strength and conditioning session from our very own Beds World Masters record holder Lawrence Palmer. We then had a theoretical session on drills and race preparation techniques from David Rayner, the head coach at Newmarket SC, followed by a 2 hour session to put what we had learnt into practice in the 50m pool.

It was a great day and, even though I would class myself as an experienced masters swimmer, I learnt quite a few new things which I hope to put into practice in the coming months.

East Region report on the event:

Masters Development Day went Swimmingly! - Swim England East Region (eastswimming.org)

If you would be interested in taking part in future development events please let me know what aspects to masters swimming you would like to see covered in the programme.

Useful Links

East Region website masters section for information on regional activities:

Masters - Swim England East Region (eastswimming.org)

Swim England Masters Hub for news on masters swimming in England. From this page it is easy to navigate to the masters event calendar, competition results, rankings, decathlon scoreboards and records:

Masters Swimming Hub | Welcome to the home of Masters in Britain

I would also recommend the “Unofficially” British Masters Swimming Facebook page. This is a private group with over 3000 members and is one of the best sources of information and opinion on masters swimming in this country and beyond.

Next Newsletter

I plan to send out a newsletter every 3 months so the next one should be early July. I would welcome your feedback on this first newsletter and suggestions for what to include in future editions. For example, do you have questions on topics related to masters swimming that you would like to see answered?

Please send me information on masters swimming in your club and news stories on masters activities and achievements that can be included in the newsletter.

Please also feel free to let me know about anything you’d like to see happening in Beds, in the East Region or even nationally. We can try to improve things if we know what it is we need to improve!

You can contact me on: masters@bedscountyasa.com

Happy Swimming!

Liz