Beckenham SC Masters

A reduced team of 8 Beckenham Masters travelled to Crawley for this event following 6 swimmers being unable to attend due to injuries or other commitments.

A change in the format from previous years saw relays held over the distance of 800m or 400m instead of the usual 200m.  No problem – Beckenham did very well with the 240+ years team of Tony Rowbotham, Paul Baker, John Paddington and Mike Kibblewhite coming 1st in the 4x100m Medley Relay.  In the 4x100m Freestyle Relay our 160+ years team of Paul French, Tim Waters, Iain Jameson and Valentin Goverdovsky came in 2nd.  Excellent results with Valentin being particularly pleased given that this was his first Masters competition.

A further 17 individual swims took place with John Paddington, only able to attend on the Saturday, giving himself a very busy day by entering 6 events.  His results were very good, including 1st in the 100m Butterfly, 3rd in the 200m Ind. Med. and 4th in both the 200m and 800m Freestyle.  Paul French came 3rd in the 50m Freestyle and Iain Jameson 3rd in the 50m Butterfly.

All in all, a successful and enjoyable weekend.

Peter Sutherland
13.02.13 

N.B. Kent Championships are on Sunday 14 July at Gillingham

Gavin Simpson had a particularly busy weekend swimming in six events in the 40-44 years age group. Finishing 1st in the 50m Breaststroke, he then had a tough battle in the 100m Breaststroke to take 2nd place. This took its toll however in the closely following 100m Freestyle where Gavin came 6th. With some interesting interpretations on what leg kick was allowed in the Fly leg of the 200m I.M., Gavin achieved 4th place using Breaststroke leg kick on the dive and Dolphin kick on the swim, but probably would have done better to continue with his excellent Breaststroke leg kick, with one leg kick to one arm stroke. (This mix and match only allowed in Masters’ events). He completed his card with 3rd place in the 50m Fly and 5th in the 50m Freestyle.

Nick Bunclark had an excellent weekend swimming in the 35-39 years age group achieving 1st place in the 50m Fly, 200m Freestyle and 200m I.M., followed up by 2nd place in the 50m Freestyle. Paul French, swimming in the 45-49 years age group had good swims obtaining 3rd place in the 50m and 100m Backstroke and 5th in the 100m Freestyle.

Tim Waters battled hard in the 45-49 years age group to obtain 2nd place in the 200m I.M., 3rd in the 50m Fly, 5th in the 100m Breaststroke and 6th in the 800m Freestyle. In the 50m Fly, Iain Jameson went head to head with Gavin Simpson in the adjacent lane, only to be just beaten by Gavin into 4th place by 0.06 secs.

Returning to competition after a few years break due to illness and injury, Cailean MacKirdy did very well swimming in the 70-74 years age group to take 2nd place in both the 200m I.M. and the 400m Freestyle. Swimming in the same age group as Cailean, Tony Rowbotham claimed 2nd place in the 100m Freestyle and 8th in the 50m Fly.

The 4x50mTeam Relays are always great fun but the clash our Men’s 160+ years Freestyle team had with Black Lion would take some beating. The team of Nick Bunclark, Gavin Simpson, Iain Jameson and Mike Kibblewhite had calculated from times achieved in the individual events that they should be able to just take them, and take them they did by 0.38 secs to come 1st.

The Men’s 160+ years Medley team of Paul French, Nick, Gavin and Iain added another 1st place seeing off Black Lion again, and RTW. Our Men’s 240+ years Medley team of Mike Kibblewhite, John Paddington Tony Rowbotham and Peter Sutherland came 2nd, being beaten by Spencer.

A great weekend of competition enjoyed by all.

Peter Sutherland

A few of our Masters have been quite active during the summer break in 2011.

First off were Louise Kelly and Lucinda Steer who competed in the Eastbourne and Rushmore Royals meets. At Eastbourne, Lucinda came 1st in the 50m and 100m Backstroke and 3rd in the 50m Freestyle, whilst Louise came 2nd in the 50m and 100m Breaststroke and 3rd in the 100m Freestyle. In the Rushmore Royals meet Lucinda achieved 2nd in the 100m Backstroke and 3rd in the 50m Backstroke. Louise came 2nd in the 50m Breaststroke and 3rd in the 100m Breaststroke.

Nick Bunclarke also competed at Rushmore Royals gaining 1st in the 50m Fly and 2nd in both the 50m and 100m Freestyle. He also swam in the Barnet Distance Meet where he came 1st in the 800m Freestyle.

Mike Kibblewhite’s choice was a triathlon during July. He competed in the Virgin Active London Triathlon which has four different distance categories with Mike choosing the longest, the Olympic Plus. This is the same distance as the Olympic but with double the bike leg. All four distance categories attracted over 13,000 participants making it the world’s largest triathlon. Out of the 103 male competitors in the Olympic Plus, Mike came in 36th, a very creditable performance with a time of 4 hours 53 seconds. Many congratulations Mike. Next year you can knock off the 53 seconds!

Some of our ladies just love the open water. Suzie Munnery and Louise Kelly competed in the 3k Speedo Open Water Swim at Eton during May where wet suits were compulsory due to the low water temperature. Their training is now geared to the Maxifuel Open Water Swim during September.

Sara Luder set herself quite a summer programme and it’s not over yet, but so far her swims have been:

Weymouth to Lulworth Cove – 16K in 4.75 hours.

River Frome, Wareham, as part of the filming for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Vegetarian Cookbook programme to be broadcast later this year.

British Gas Great London Swim – just 1 mile with Sara coming 11th out of the 193 women in her age group and 115th out of the total of 1491 female entrants. Time 27 mins. 53 secs.

Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) 6.5K round the island swim – came 14th out of 48 women in 1 hour 44mins.

Burgh Island (South Devon). Only 1 Mile round the island swim but conditions were rough with water temperature 16 degrees. Total time 29 mins.

Windermere – in Sara’s words, “It was fantastic, 10.5 miles of flat water at 17 degrees with amazing scenery”. Sara swam with two other people and took 5 hours 50 mins.

River Dart in Devon, 10K (current assisted) in 2 Hours 20 Mins. Organised by the Outdoor Swimming Society and again will be featured in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s filming.

Best of luck for the rest of the season.

Peter Sutherland

A team of 9 swimmers did an excellent job at these championships collecting enough points to put us in 5th place out of 20 competing teams. This included 9 first places, 8 second and 5 third, plus the team races where we added two 1st places, a 3rd and a 4th.

Our biggest points earners were Nic Bunclark, 24 points from four 1st places, Gavin Simpson 20 points from four 2nd places, our Mens Teams 19 points, followed by Paul French 17 points, Louise Kelly 16 points, Lucinda Steer 15 points, Tony Rowbotham 12 points, Jorge Rios 11 points, John Paddington 10 points and Tim Waters 8 points.

It was also interesting to note that Colin Kirkwood’s 50m Breaststroke record of 40.89 secs. which he set in 1997 in the 60-64 years age group, continued to be unbeaten. This year the race was won in 44.70 secs. No chance!

Peter Sutherland

Over the weekend of 29/30 January we visited Crawley for this, the first open gala in the Masters calendar, which attracts a very good field of entrants.

In the Mixed 120 years+ Medley Team event (Louise Kelly, Lucinda Steer, Tim Watson and Paul French) we came 2nd and in the Mixed 120+ years Freestyle Team event (Louise Kelly, Lucinda Steer, Mike Kibblewhite and Gavin Simpson) we came 3rd.

In the individual events, with each swimmer competing within their own 5 year age band, Lucinda Steer took silver in the 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke and came 6th in the 100m Freestyle. Louise Kelly had a fine swim in the 800m Freestyle to take silver and added Bronze in the 200m Freestyle. She also achieved 5th in the 400m Freestyle, 5th in the 100m Freestyle and 7th in the 50m Freestyle. To complete her card she added 4th in the 50 Fly.

Luis Rios won our only gold, coming first in the 50m Breaststroke and also came 4th in the 100m Freestyle. Getting back into competitive swimming after quite a long break, Gavin Simpson had a successful Saturday, winning silver in the 50m Breaststroke and coming 4th in both the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Freestyle. Again, in his first competition for quite a few years, Tim Waters won Bronze in the 200m I.M., came 4th in the 50 Fly and 200m Freestyle, 5th in the 50m Breaststroke and 8th in the 50m Freestyle. Completing our team effort, Paul French came 5th in both the 50m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke, 6th in the 50m Backstroke and 7th in the 100m Freestyle.

A very busy weekend for all, with some good results

Can you believe this is a very popular biennial event attracting swimmers from Latvia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Austria, Germany, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey and N Ireland.

We had just one hardy sole enter, which is no surprise given the water was just 3 degrees! Sara Luder was the person who did us proud, coming 8th in the Ladies Freestyle within her 10 year age band out of the 21 entrants.

Well done Sara

Robert Farrish had an excellent weekend of competition in the above championships during October. Swimming all Freestyle events in the 45-49 Age Group he came 1st in the 1500m, 2nd in the 800m, 5th in the 400m and 4th in the 200m. Not a bad weekends work!

Why leave it to just your children to get fit. Why not come along to the Masters session on a Monday evening from 9.00pm – 10.00pm. We have 6 lanes graduated from slowest to fastest, so there are no excuses! Phone or e-mail Peter Sutherland (the Masters secretary) if you want more information

The objective of any Master Swimmer is to better times from the previous year whilst inevitably getting older, which is exactly what Paul French did in each of the four events he entered this year. His final places were 1st in the 50m Freestyle, 2nd in the 100m Freestyle, 2nd in the 100 Backstroke and 4th in the 50m Backstroke. A busy and successful afternoon.

Our congratulations go to Robert Farrish who had an excellent weekend in Glasgow swimming in the 45-49 years category of the above championships. He achieved first place in both the 400m and 800m Freestyle and in his first ever 1500m Freestyle race took second place.

Following the recent decision of the FINA Bureau related to “FINA SWIMWEAR RULES - MASTERS SWIMMING”, please see below the amendment to FINA BL 8.5.

BL 8.1, BL 8.2, BL 8.3 and BL 8.4 remain as approved by the FINA Bureau. The only amendment is to FINA BL 8.5.

Please note that this amendment takes immediate effect and will be published in the new edition of the FINA Handbook 2009-2013.

BL 8.1 All FINA approved swimwear to be used at the Olympic Games and FINA World Championships must be approved by FINA at least twelve (12) months prior to the start of the respective competition. In addition, it must be available for all competitors by 1st January of the year of the Olympic Games or FINA World Championships

BL 8.2 In swimming competitions, the competitor must wear only one swimsuit in one or two pieces. No additional items, like arm bands or leg bands shall be regarded as parts of a swimsuit.

BL 8.3 From January 1, 2010 swimwear for men shall not extend above the navel nor below the knee, and for women, shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor shall extend below knee. All swimsuits shall be made from textile materials.

BL 8.4 From June 1, 2010 Open Water swimwear for both men and women shall not cover the neck, extend past the shoulder, nor shall extend below the ankle. All Open Water swimsuits shall comply with the FINA Criteria for Materials and Approval Procedures.

BL 8.5 From January 15, 2010 in Masters Pool Swimming competitions the rules BL 8.1, BL 8.2 and BL 8.3 apply. From June 1, 2010 the rule BL 8.4 applies also for the Masters Open Water Swimming competitions.

It is clarified that swimsuits which fulfill the shape requirement set forth in BL 8.3, respectively BL 8.4 (for Open Water Swimming) can be accepted even if they do not bear a valid FINA approval label provided they effectively and evidently fulfill the material requirements set forth in the current FINA Requirements for Swimwear Approval. This is the case for swimsuits made of traditional permeable textile (i.e. open mesh material) material (such as cotton, Nylon, Lycra and the like) with no application of surface treatment closing the open mesh structure. In case of doubt in this respect and when notably such doubt concerns a swimsuit used at the occasion of a World record, an actual check of the swimsuit can be required from the competitor or Certifying Official and the swimsuit is to be forwarded to the FINA Office for submission to an actual control of all or parts of the requirements.

Ex Beckenham swimmer, Judy Wilson (nee Gegan) who swam in the 1964 Olympics has just broken the world record for 50m and 100m butterfly in the 65 – 69 years age group.

Judy now lives in France and swims for the Vichy Club.  She has always been a Fly swimmer and was part of the English Medley Team which broke the world record at the Commonwealth Games in 1966, and that team contained three swimmers all from Beckenham swimming Club!  How’s that for a record.

March 2010

Congratulations to two of our Master Swimmers who produced some good results at the above competition.

John Paddington, swimming in Group E, started the weekend well by winning the first event, the 400m I.M. Later in the day he followed this up with another fine win in the 200m Fly.

Paul French, swimming in Group D, bettered his time set at this competition last year in the 100m Freestyle by 1.5 seconds to achieve 3rd place and went on to add 3rd in the 50m Freestyle and 5th in the 50m and 100m Backstroke.

Click here for a copy of the SER LC Masters 2010 Results

Our congratulations go to Robert Farish who had some excellent swims at the ASA Masters Swimming Championships 2009 meet swimming in the 45-49 year category.

He pushed Beckenham’s name to the head of the results of the Mens 800m Freestyle easily winning it in 9.30.63. He followed this up with 3rd place in the 400m Freestyle and 5th place in the 200m Freestyle.

See the results here: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, Session 4, Session 5 and Session 6.

ASA South East Region Masters and Seniors Competition on 3rd October 2009 at the Spectrum, Guildford RESULTS.

Congratulations to Robert Farrish, who achieved good results in the European Masters in Cadiz, competing in the 45-49 years age group. He came 7th in the 400m Freestyle, 8th in the 800m Freestyle and 9th in the 3K Open Water event.

Well done Robert.

Does anyone have a Beckenham Swimming Club Badge that was given to swimmers when they competed for the Club in the 1970’s. It was a white ‘Kent horse’ on a blue badge. Someone who has lost theirs and would love a replacement has contacted the club. Please contact Jackie Elliott if you can help.

Congratulations to Paul French who swimming in his last year in the 40-44 year Age Group in the above Championships, achieved 1st in the 100m Freestyle, 2nd in the 50m Freestyle, 3rd in the 100m Backstroke and 4th in the 50m Backstroke.

Click here to view the results from the Kent County ASA website.

Click here to view masters championships information and placing of the various teams.

Congratulations to Robert Farish who competed in the above championships in the 45-49 year age group, obtaining silver in the 400m Freestyle and bronze in both the 200m and 800m Freestyle.

Click here to view the results from the ASA website

Click here to download and/or view results of the Beckenham Masters Swimmers competing in the South East Region Long Course Competition on Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th January 2009 at K2 Crawley.