Congratulations to Graham Powell, Dave Wright, Alastair Gibb and John O’Rourke who collectively achieved 23rd position in the 2022 Decathlon Male Masters’ Team competition to finish as the top placed team in the East Region
Our Ladies team came 71st out of 374 clubs despite only participating in just 23 out of a potential maximum 40 qualifying place.
Read here for further details.
Graham Powell claimed six medals, three Eastern Region and five Beds Masters record from his six swims at the English National Masters.
However the ten – strong squad all produced notable performances. Dave Wright was our other medal winner as a total of seven Beds County and twelve Club Masters records were broken. Advancing years proved no obstacle as some of our Ladies swam their fastest ever times in Masters events. Read here for a detailed report.
Karen MacKenzie and John O’Rourke were both crowned Backstroke champions as the small squad of the Club’s Masters who chose to compete in advance of the National Short Course Championships later this month returned from Newmarket with thirteen medals.
A detailed report (together with successes from other Masters’ meets earlier in the year) may be accessed here.
The 2022 British Swimming Masters Championships held in Aberdeen saw four Team Luton members crowned individual champions.
Kelly Cooke, Karen MacKenzie, Dave Wright and Graham Powell spearheaded a weekend that saw the squad of eight competitors win 6 Gold, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze medals whilst setting 4 East Region, 15 Beds County and a total of 20 Club Masters records. Read here for a full report
After a two year hiatus, seven of our swimmers brought home 24 medals from Newmarket’s Open Masters Meet, claiming two new Beds County records as they set three new Club Masters records.
Five of our Masters travelled in various directions during the first quarter of 2022 to compete, all returning with medals of varying colours.
Bracknell and Swansea were the two destinations which reaped a new Beds County record for Dave Wright and new Club Masters’ records for Dave, Colin Mayes and Sam Bradley.
A report (with a link to the full results) may be accessed here.
Academy Coach Matt Wright qualified to compete in three events at the 2022 British Swimming Championships held in Sheffield 5th – 10th April.
Matt swam in the 200m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle. He recorded personal best times of 52.59 seconds and 1:55.22 in the two freestyle races, setting new Club records in both events
Congratulations go to Lyla Howard and Matt Wright on being the Club’s first swimmers in 2022 to break Club records in their respective age groups.
Whilst these club records have to be claimed, it’s been heartening to see as we return to more regular competitions so many of our members achieving personal best times at the various recent Swim Meets held at Inspire, Hatfield etc. These are recorded automatically by British Swimming and may be viewed on the swimming.org website.
Not to be outdone by our younger swimmers, Colin Mayes and Dave Wright also broke two of the Club’s Masters records at the Bracknell Masters meet in March. Dave’s 200m Freestyle time was an improvement on his own Beds County record for the 60 -64 years’ age group.
Eleven Senior and five Junior County titles with 32 Gold, 26 Silver and 20 Bronze Individual Age Group medals. After the Covid-pandemic induced break in 2021, the return of the County championships also saw numerous personal best times. These were achieved over a range of strokes and distances not only by our more experienced swimmers but also those having their first taste of competition in a 50m pool against youngsters from all the other Bedfordshire clubs.
Read the detailed report and go to the Beds ASA website for the full results
Jo Mitchinson, Dave Wright and Graham Powell are all included in the World Top Ten Rankings for their Masters’ swims in the lists just released by FINA.
Jo was ranked 3rd (1500m Freestyle, ) 6th (400m Freestyle) and 7th (200m Backstroke) in the Ladies 40 – 44 years’ age group.
Dave claimed 6th spot in the Men’s 60 -64 years’ 200m Butterfly.
In the 65 – 69 years age group, Graham Powell was 5th (50m Back), 6th (100m Back) and 10th (200m Back).
FINA’s Top Ten relay listings were clearly incomplete, omitting all British club relay times from 2021. Other countries may also have been omitted but the English Nationals’ time recorded by Graham, Malcolm Barton, Dave and Alastair Gibb in their 240 – 279 years’ 400m Medley relay might have claimed them 5th spot. The combination of Dave, Alastair, Colin Mayes and Malcolm potentially also recorded the 8th fastest time for their 240 -279 years’ 800m Freestyle relay.