East were represented at the Long Course British Masters Championships and here is a a brief a write up of how we got on.
Friday
800m Freestyle
The proceedings kicked off with the distance event on Friday morning with Phil finally having a distance friend in the form of Emily who was racing her first ever, 800m.
Owing to this and the guesstimate time entered, she was up first in heat 5 and went out as she meant to go on. Leading from the first length and coming in over 25m ahead of everyone in a time of 11:29:66 which was 46 seconds quicker than her entry time and has now seen the epiphany of the distance events! Overall coming in 7th place in the 25-29 age group.
Phil was then up a little while later in heat 12 showing how its done going out in a 2:25 for the first 200m and then holding 1:17s for the next 5 100’s before coming home in a 1:15 to hit 10:07.54 to claim silver for the 45-49 year age group.
100m Butterfly
Hanna was EASTs only representative for this event and pretty happy with her result claiming bronze in the process of what she called the “warm up” for the 50 Butterfly on Saturday.
200m Backstroke
Heat 6 was the heat to watch out in the women’s event with Laura up and some friendly local rivalry to boot including Catherine from UEA who was her direct competition for the title!
Looking strong from the outset she paced the race perfectly coming into the 100m turn in the top 3, pushing off and up into the lead – excellent underwater action there and showing us how it’s done. From there she powered through and staved off a late charge from the girl next to her to come in on a 2:42.67 taking 6 seconds of her PB and nearing her lifetime best.
The time also took the East Region record as well as the British title too which meant a little gold medal for her troubles!
James then took to the start competing in his first ever 200m backstroke and did himself proud, he had been around since the start of the day waiting to get in the pool having been team cheerleader from the first session! Coming 4:00:25, he claimed bronze adding to the EAST medal haul for the day.
Dave Webster was next up to race looking like a new man in his jammers and finally retiring the trunks to training purposes only.
Storming home in a time of 2:22.49 it could be said that the new compression shorts did their thing but then again it could be the move to Cambridge and the new techniques learnt bringing home a silver medal in the process.
400m Individual Medley
Phil was up again in the only individual event of the evening session and having been given a pep talk by Dave, that the backstroke part of the race would win or lose it for him, he stormed it taking the lead on this leg and holding it until the end with a brilliant race for us spectators winning the heat from lane 1 against a late charge from lane 8 who was incidentally clearly the only other person in the heat who had entered a genuine time, to win it by 2 hundredths of a second and claiming his second silver medal of the day.
Saturday
200m Freestyle
The guys were up first on Saturday and subject to the early warm-up.
First up for EAST was Dave Borthwick having shaved down especially for the weekend which worked as he “shaved off” just about 3 seconds from his entry time to come home in 2:37:28. Overall coming in 12th place.
Phil was next up and showed us all how it was done and proved he is a distance specialist having led the heat from the start but really pulled away in the 3rd 50 finishing first in his heat and placing 7th overall.
Emily was the only girl representing EAST finishing in a time of 2:34.25 and placing 14th.
50m Backstroke
James was up next and again back to his medal winning ways storming to the finish in 52:55 knocking just under 3 seconds off his entry time and securing bronze in the process.
Dave, back in his compression shorts and having been helped rather forcefully to pull them up, was ready and raring to go for his 50 backstroke finishing in a time of 30:33 to take bronze.
200m Individual Medley
Dave Borthwick was EASTs only male representative and was granted his wish having wanted to get in under 3 minutes and doing so with a time of 2:59.80 starting off as he meant to go on with a strong fly, his backstroke and freestyle were also strong – the less said about the breaststroke leg the better, the 57. time was pretty epic!
Laura was representing the girls and continued her medal winning ways, without realising until she had left tbe building that is, that she had secured a bronze medal!
100m Breaststroke
Kate began her breaststroke winning ways this afternoon storming the penultimate heat of the 100m in a time of 1:19.82 which was an East Region record and a PB of two seconds having mistakenly entered her short course time which clearly did her no harm nor did the goggle malfunction as she dived in.
50m Butterfly
The butterfly heats, despite the number were over and done with in a flash, we had four swimmers up with Terry securing a silver medal in his 65-69 age group and Hanna just pipped by 5 tenths for a bronze medal. James also put in a strong effort coming in 6th in his age group.
The best heat by far was Dave Borthwick’s with some chap rocking a questionable pair of white budgey smugglers which were maybe a little too well-worn as they were a little see through. That distraction aside he still stormed to a 34 something though was a little miffed to have been beaten by the white trunks guy!
50m Breaststroke
The final breaststroke event was first up for the Saturday evening session and Terry absolutely storming his heat in a 41:49 to secure gold having won his heat in style with James coming in 6th place in the same age group.
Kate then went onto to win her 50m and yet again, in a new East Region record meaning she claimed Gold and Records in all of the three breaststroke events for the clean sweep in the 35-39 age group proving herself to be the one to beat!
100m Freestyle
Dave and Terry were up first and in the same heat – dual in the pool some may say! Dave came out on top winning the heat in 1.09.49 and closely followed by Terry in 1.12.03 who took home his third medal of the session in the form of a silver medal and the grudge match set for the 50 free…in the process.
Phil was the other EASTie coming in on 1.05.15 which isn’t bad at all for a distance swimmer!
Kate and Hanna were EASTs representatives for the girls both just missing out on medals in their respective age groups; Kate though was the fastest 100 freestyler out of the guys and girls – 1.04.65.
Sunday
400m Freestyle
Emily & Phil were again the only two from EAST swimming in this middle distance race with strong efforts from both.
Emily beat her short course PB by around a second – 5:25.72 and Phil finished in 4:54.61 to come 5th.
At this point, Emily and Dave left so the write up for the following will be brief in comparison to the rest but it could be said Dave was worried about the rematch against Terry on the 50 free hence his quick decision to make the trip back to Norwich 😉
100m Backstroke
Only the two EAST swimmers representing but both did us proud by winning Silver medals.
Laura in the 30-34 age group in a time of 1.16.81 and Dave W in the 35-39 age group with the time 1.05.02, 4 seconds ahead of Bronze no less.
50m Freestyle
Hanna and Kate again stepped up for EAST for the sprint freestyle event coming in 5th and 4th in their respective 30-34 and 35-39 age groups.
Terry and James were up next in the 65-69 age group; Terry securing his third silver medal of the meet, in a time of 31.54 with that elusive under 30 ever nearing, James came in 8th in a time of 47.18.
200m Breaststroke
The final event and the only person crazy enough to enter was Kate, coming home again with a Gold medal meaning she secured titles for all three distances for the stroke which ruins an IM 😉
All in all a great meet and shows EAST swimmers are a force to be reckoned with.
We brought home 18 medals in total including 5 Gold’s, 8 Silvers and 5 Bronze’s.
Looking forward to the East Region and Short Course Nationals in October already!
Emily – Competition Secretary
For photos please go to: http://photoquintessence.com/british-masters-swimming-championships-2015/