It has been and exceptionally successful summer for Masters Swimming in Hertfordshire both in the pool and in open water.
There was plenty of medals brought home from the British Masters Championships in Swansea, which was held between the 14thand 16thJune 2019. There were 11 swimmers from Hertfordshire representing 6 clubs. The clubs represented were Berkhamsted, Bishops Stortford, St Albans Masters, Hemel Hempstead, Potters Bar and Watford.
In total Hertfordshire Masters won;
6 – Gold
10 – Silver
5 – Bronze
Also Hemel Hempstead’s 4x100m Medley Relay 240-279years broke the British Record, the relay swimmers were; Kevin McKenna, David Pirrie, Mike Foskett and Mark Strakosch.
Mike Foskett also broke an East Region Record in the 65-69years 200m Backstroke at the British Masters Championships.
As well as the success on home soil Hertfordshire swimmers have also had success internationally this season. We had swimmers at the Masters European games where John Cunningham of Potters Bar won three medals in the 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly.
We have also had representation by two swimmers who have headed to the city of Gwanju, South Korea to compete in the FINA World Masters Championships.
Catherine Freeman of St Albans Masters swum in two events;
50 Freestyle – placed 25th
100m Freestyle – placed 15th
Wray Shewell-Cooper of Potters Bar swum in 4 Pool events and also in the Open Water event at the World Championships, his results were;
3km Open Water – 11th
50m Freestyle – 27th
2oom Freestyle – 15th
50m Butterfly – 26th
200m Individual Medley – 11th
There has also been a lot of success in open water for our Masters swimmers, with 8 swimmers competing in the Swim England East Region Open Water Championships. Hertfordshire came away with 6 regional medals. Well done to the following swimmers who competed at this event; Wray Shewell-Cooper, Duncan Hartley, Jo Mitchinson, Rebecca Hartley, Dani Harrison, Alice Barnes, Caroline Griffin and Oliver Carrington.
There is one more big open water event in the calendar for our Masters swimmers that is the National Masters Open Water Championships on the 1stSeptember.
