Midlands Masters 2007

by Rob Egan

Midlands Masters Championship 2007 Race Report
The swimming sessions over the past fortnight had been packed with competitors honing their performances, and with moral sky high following a successful meet in Gloucester only a fortnight ago, great performances were anticipated. Under the influence of 'bowling night' beer, challenges had been set and accepted. The team was rearing to go!

A swim too far
Eight Kenilworth Masters swimmers braved Friday evening's 16 length freestyle challenge. With John Smith, Trevor Clark and Elizabeth Green each winning the first of their many gold medals. John set a personal best of 4:33.37, yet disappointment greeted the McWhirter household as Roy swam a "truely shocking" 400 meters for bronze, and 0.9 seconds denied Mel of a sub 5 minute time and 2 evenings of free babysitting. Rachel was unimpressed by her slower than last year swim, and with 'über achievers' Zim and Mel's swims being only good enough for silvers, gloom set over Leamington's Newbold Comyn swimming pool.

Faced with a fiercely early start, and a swimmer soup that constituted the morning warm-up, the Kenilworth Masters team congregated alongside friends and rivals Birmingham Masters, and a few traitorous training colleagues who had swapped clubs for the event.

The sun was shining; it was a glorious April day outside, people asked 'what am I doing here?', but thing were going to pick up...

Saturday Derby
Early interest was provided by heat 12 of the mixed 200m freestyle that saw King John, Mel & Roy in adjacent lanes. The King went out hard and fast, with Chairman Roy hot on his heels whilst Mel looked dangerously relaxed just behind. But the boys held on to their early pace and the King his crown as John won in 2:17.02. Roy was 2 seconds behind with Mel disappointed to be over a second and a half behind Roy despite winning the event gold. Later in the event John Smith set a personal best time of 2:07.29 storming to gold, 10 seconds clear of his nearest rival.

Robert Egan was delighted to carve 4.7 seconds off his personal best in the 100m breaststroke set only two weeks earlier. He then followed that up by destroying his previous 100m individual medley best by 4.9 seconds.

John & Roy went head to head again in heat 6 of the 50m fly, but this time joined by Dave Francis who showed the younger men the way, winning the heat in 30.13. Just 3 tenths was the difference, but again the Chairman trailed the King home.

With a point to prove in the 50m backstroke, Roy used all 15 metres fly kick off the start. Had he managed more than the first 5 of these underwater, he may have improved on his 33.69s time, and 4th position. Robert Gristwood went one better in the event earning a bronze.

The day ended with a hissy-fit. All the toys went flying as Rachel learned she hadn't broken the 30 second barrier for 50m freestyle in her relay split. "If that wasn't a 29 I can never swim one" she sobbed on hearing the news that she'd just swam a 30.08, only to be further disappointed a few moments later when Robert's poor maths was corrected by Joy to reveal a split of 31.08.

Thankfully benevolent landlord Ian stepped in to soothe the situation with a glass of wine and some of Aubrey Allen's finest at his evening barbeque. Back on form, Rachel was the hostess with the mostess, cunningly arranging some hamstring tearing games in the hope of winning both wine and chocolate from Sunday's 50m freestyle challenges.

Sunday Sundae
Shocked by Saturday's early start many chose to forego the 8:30am warm-up for a play in the children's pool. Will 'Lord Fontelroy' Whittaker the undoubted champion of the slide.

Sunday started well as Andrew Seggie set a PB of 1:02.46 on route to silver in the 100m backstroke. Joy Stevenson and David Francis also swam well for silver, whilst Steve Bircham, Jennifer Armatige, Brenda Hallard and Barbera McMillan were all good enough for gold.

Bowling night challenges meant that the 50m freestyle took on added significance. Having been comfortably beaten to the kilo of chocolate, just 0.38 seconds robbed Rachel of a bottle of wine. However, a double edged sword greeted Ian as he first won said chocolate, only to be banned from eating it for a month having lost out to Joy. Jonathan Leyborne set an impressive time of 26.53s, only to be denied the fastest Kenilworth swimmer at the meet by Seggie's 26.31s.

Sandy and Seggie became the main talking point, requiring sartorial advice from the girls having lost out to King John and John Smith respectively. The unfortunate duo look set to enliven a training session with some cross-dressing antics in the very near future.

Gold Rush
Jill Groves won gold in the 50m backstroke, whilst Rosemary Green won her 50m freestyle event and finished runner up in the 50m breaststroke.

Having followed 200 metre specialist Keith Earnshaw's medal winning advice, sole entrant in his age group Robert Egan was a surprise winner in the 200m individual medley with a round time of 3:00.00. Robert also managed bronze in the 200m breaststroke despite a 'meerkat moment' following a spectator's alarming shout on the 7th length. Having completed four valiant 200m events, '8 lengths Keith' left with two bronze medals for his backstroke and butterfly.

Having taken silver in the 100m backstroke, Joy Stevenson went one better in the 200m backstroke winning gold in a time of 2:45.64. Joy also overcame scuba dive starts to collect silver medals in the 50m and 100m butterfly events.

Breaststroke specialist Robert Robson made a magnificent club debut winning two golds and a silver on his preferred stroke, and taking bronze on the 100m individual medley. Yet this was topped by Steve Goult who set a personal best for 200m en route to winning gold in each of the breaststroke distances. Steve also won the 50m freestyle and claimed silver in the 50m back.

Confirming Kenilworth men's enthusiasm for breast, Zim won both 50m and 100m breaststroke events, adding the 50m fly for a hat-trick of golds. Two silvers and a bronze took his medal tally to 6.

Clearly suffering from a twitchy pen when faced with the entry form, Trevor Clark raced a total 1100 metres in 9 individual events. His reward was a Phelps-like haul of 5 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals from the keenly contested 50 - 55 age group. Also contesting this category, Steve Burcham netted a Thorpe-like 4 golds and a silver, whilst Dave Francis was good for a Roger Black-like 3 silvers and a bronze. Amassing 19 individual medals from this age group, the club's younger swimmers were shown how things should be done.

The ladies from the E age group fought just as hard with Michelle Dige winning 2 gold and 3 silver medals, and Karen Stacey 2 silver and 2 bronze. Robert Gristwood won bronze in the 50 back, whilst Keith Hawkes came closest to a medal in the 100m breaststroke.

Elaine Bromwich took a clean sweep of golds in the three breastroke events, while Ruth Taylor, Barbra McMillan and Brenda Hallard all earned 2 golds with Brenda securing an additional silver in the 100m freestyle.

At the other end of the age spectrum Carla Bosworth raced to gold and silver in her respective 50m fly and freestyle. In the same age category, Matt Thomas blasted his way to gold in the blue riband 100m freestyle, setting a personal best of 53.60 in the process.

Jackies Barker and Grace each won silver in the 100m individual medley and 50m back respectively. Jenifer Armatige also secured silver in the 50m backstroke, but toped it off with gold in 100m. Meanwhile, Chris Proud won a pair of bronzes in the 50m and 100m fly.

Relays
From the four individual events she entered, Mel finished with 3 gold and 1 silver medals, but was most pleased with an all time personal best split time of 28.05 set in the closest race of the day, the female masters 120+ 4x50m relay. Though closing with every metre swum, Kenilworth lost to Camphill Edwardians by just 0.3s.

Claire O'Reilly was delighted to win her first ever swimming medals; collecting two silvers for her contributions in the 160+ medley and freestyle relay teams.

With Bob called off the subs bench, the real class came from the 200+, 240+ and 280+ relay teams. Kenilworth's senior competitors eclipsed the three youngest age groups total of 2 golds from 17 entries, with a magnificent 9 golds from 12 entries. Bob required several pints of liquid analgesic in the Newbold Arms afterwards, but the strain had been worth it.

Overall Kenilworth was the dominant force in the relays. Assuming three points for a first, two for a second and one for a third,Kenilworth come out on top with 61 points, Birmingham are close runners up with 55, and Camp Hill score 40 for third.

Match Stats
A of 20 Kenilworth Masters men and 18 women entered individual events, winning 46 gold, 29 silver, and 21 bronze medals. The club also entered 30 relay teams, winning 11 gold, 12 silver, and 3 bronze medals.

The men won 57 individual and relay medals, 24 of which were gold. The women won a mere 53 individual and relay medals, yet a more impressive collection of 28 gold. The mixed relay teams won 4 gold and 12 medals in total.

In its 20th anniversary year, the club won a staggering 122 medals in total, making 2007's Midlands Masters championship one to remember.

Full Results List

Kenilworth Only Results