As we embark on the 2017 competitive season comes the news that eight of our male swimmers finished in Bedforshire’s Masters & Seniors Decathlon top twenty for 2016, two more than in the previous year. More significantly perhaps is that we had six ladies who swam competitively in 2016.

For the third successive year Graham Powell was the club’s top male finishing third in the County with 5,121 points. Karen Mackenzie was our top female.  Full data showing the year on year progression is in the table below but worthy of mention are:

**Malcolm Barton climbing six places into the County top ten.

**John O’Rourke and Mark Wareham both moving up four places.

**Our “Senior” Jonathan Pennell making his debut inside the top 20 from just six (out of a potential maximum ten) races.

**Karen and Lorraine Sadler both entering the Ladies County’s Top 30 in their first year of competition, each from only six qualifying events, with Sharon Collins coming in 31st. More incentive perhaps for them to enter additional events in 2017?

Beds County Ranking		Name		Age	Decathlon Points (No. of races)		GB Decathlon Ranking
2016	2015				2016	2015	2016	2015
3	3	Graham Powell		60	5,279 (10)	5,121 (10)	29	33
4	6	Dave Wright		55	4,215 (10)	3,810   (9)	98	124
5	4	Alastair Gibb		56	4,117 (10)	4,110 (10)	106	94
9	15	Malcolm Barton		61	2,884 (10)	2,252 (7)	317	542
10	9	Colin Mayes		61	2,882 (7)	3,280 (8)	318	214
12	16	John O’Rourke		47	2,691 (10)	2,212 (9)	375	563
15	19	Mark Wareham		45	2,512 (7)	1,977 (5)	453	725
20	–	Jonathan Pennell		24	2,250 (6)	–	589	–
33	–	Darren Hale		45	1,328 (4)	–	1,321	–
–	35	Ian Norman		47	–	409   (2)	–	2,075
Beds County Ranking		Name		Age	Decathlon Points (races)		GB Decathlon Ranking
2016	2015				2016	2015	2016	2015
16	–	Karen MacKenzie		43	2,154 (6)	–	458	–
22	–	Lorraine Sadler		45	1,477 (6)	–	864	–
26	25	Glenda Mayes		60	1,151 (4)	872 (3)	1,106	1,181
28	24	Eloise Turner		44	1,004 (4)	964 (4)	1,223	1,100
31	–	Sharon Collins		49	863 (4)	–	1,347	–
42	–	Gwen Skingley		34	165 (1)	–	1,978	–