Entry information for the 2017 Dorset County Masters and Senior Age Groups Championships has been published. The competition is scheduled for Sunday 9 July at Rossmore Leisure Centre and will, for the first time, include a 16/17 years age group. Details can be found on our Masters web page and County calendar.
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National Inter-County Masters Championships 2016
The Dorset team finished in a comfortable second place behind a supremely strong Devon team at the ASASW Inter-County Masters Championships which was held this year in Dorchester and attended by Dorset County ASA President Mark Hoskins and his wife Margaret. Despite a large number of withdrawals from the team of mostly first choice selections, Dorset also managed a 50 points margin, the most ever achieved in this competition, ahead of the rest of the field. Overall, Dorset clocked up 16 wins and 17 second places finishing first or second in almost half of the 68 events and, for the first time for some years, no costly DQs.
Dorsets younger Ladies were phenomenal, dropping only four points out of a possible 72 in the youngest two age groups and none at all in the youngest. Fiona Hardie won the 18+ Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly, while Hannah Wiltshire won both the 18+ and 25+ Breaststroke (the latter by five seconds) and Kirsty Heard the 25+ Freestyle. With Lucy Pearce, they also won all four 72yrs and 100yrs relays, two of those events with a margin of five seconds. Our other winners were: Mark Sidorenko (18+ Freestyle with a time of 24.40), Nigel Foster (65+ Backstroke), Nick Vaughan (45+ Butterfly), Andy Small (45+ Backstroke), Tony Flattery and Karen Yendole ( 35+ Breaststroke) and the Men’s 140yrs Freestyle team of Dan Monk, Jack Wiltshire, Andy Mason and Nick Vaughan. In the 20 relay events, Dorset took five first places and nine second places.
Some people were especially busy. In the absence of Julia Kemp and Jean Howard-Jones, Linda Ashmore (a sprightly 70) swam all four individuals and two relays, not quite matching the nine she swam two years ago. Mark Sidorenko and Fiona Hardie both swam seven events with Fiona winning the lot. Hannah Wiltshire swam six, and also won six, events. Kirsty Heard, Tony Flattery and Helen Dickins also swam six times.
The Dorset team was made up of swimmers from nine Dorset clubs – Poole, Swim Bournemouth, Littledown Masters, Seagulls, Bournemouth SC, East Dorset Open Water, Wareham, Weymouth SC and Weyport Masters. The final points total was as follows: Devon 346.5, Dorset 294.5, Gloucestershire 245, Cornwall 211, Wiltshire 196.5, Somerset 131.5.
Next year’s event is scheduled for Sunday 12 November 2017 at Millfield and will be joined for the first time by a South Wales team.
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ASA Masters Conference 2016
The ASA Masters Conference 2016 is to take place on Saturday 12 November at SportPark, Loughborough. Starting at 10am and finishing at 4pm, the conference will bring together Masters and Master Synchro swimmers in addition to professionals in the swimming industry. For further information http://www.swimming.org/masters/asa-masters-conference/.
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Dorset Masters Championships 2016
Dorset County ASA Masters Championships were held at Rossmore on Sunday 14 February 2016. The Championships, which incorporates Dorset Masters Open Meet, had sixty swimmers present representing ten clubs and competing in 236 swims. Participating clubs also included two swimmers from SouthEast Region clubs Fareham Nomads and Basingstoke Bluefins.
The Championships began with a minutes silence followed by a round of applause in memory of Littledown Masters’ coach Laurie Dormer.
During the competition, a total of 37 Championship Best Times were set with the most prolific new record holders being Lisa Durward (Seagulls) with six CBTs, Peter Kirk (Littledown Masters) with five CBTs, and Hannah Wiltshire (Poole) also with five CBTs.
The top team trophy was awarded to Poole Swimming Club who amassed 350 points. Runners-up were Littledown Masters with Seagulls finishing in third place.
A huge thank you must go to all the officials who gave up their time to officiate, and to the Poole SC Swim Meet Committee for organisation and running the competition on the day.
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National Inter-County Masters Championships 2015
At this years regional Inter-County Masters gala the Dorset team finished equal second with Devon, representing Dorsets best ever result for Dorset in this competition, and just five points behind Gloucestershire who won the ASASW Masters Inter-County for the first time since 1997.
Dorset Masters had 15 race wins and 23 second places, finishing in the top two for more than half of the 68 events. Final points totals were: Gloucestershire 308, Dorset 303, Devon 303, Wiltshire 200, Somerset 160, and Cornwall 124.
Hoping that the regional results would translate into a good result in the national competition, the team was not disappointed. The Dorset Masters team finished in seventh place overall out of 28 counties, which is not only Dorsets best-ever national result by three places but, once all points had been calculated, pushed Dorset into first place of the South West counties for the first time, ahead of Devon and regional winners Gloucestershire who finished nationally in tenth place.
In the national showdown, Dorset also clocked up three national wins from Nigel Foster in the 65+ 50m Backstroke, Julia Kemp in the 65+ 50m Butterfly and Hannah Wiltshire in the 25+ 50m Breaststroke. Julia was also second in the 65+ 50m Backstroke and Hannah third in the 18+ 50m Breaststroke which she swam just two minutes after having won the 25+ age group event. However the overall results was very much a team performance and credit goes to all of the swimmers.
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Weyport Masters
Weyport Masters Linda Ashmore has completed her first ever IronMan competition at the age of 68, finishing in first place in the 65-69 age group and earning a place in this years World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in October.
Held in Bolton on 17 July, Linda finished in a time of 15 hours and 19 minutes, completing a 3.8km swim, 180km hilly bike ride and 42km run. She was the oldest person in the race and ranked 1438 out of a total of 2157 competitors, many of whom did not make it to the finish line.
Linda has only been training in earnest for a little over a year, and this was the first time she had completed a marathon-length run or attempted the whole course at once. Already an accomplished swimmer, Linda became the oldest woman in the world to swim the English Channel in 2007 at the age of 61.
Lindas focus is now on competing at IronMan Wales in September to qualify for the 2016 World Championships when she will be in the 70-74 age group.
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Littledown Master Class
The past few weeks have been some of the most eventful in the short history of Littledown Masters.
Building on the success of becoming Half Iron Man World Champion in December 2010, James Gilfillan will once again be heading to Florida in November this year after qualifying at the weekend for the Half-Iron Man World Championships in Clearwater. Gilfillan, 31, came 13th overall out of 1,200 competitors in the qualifying event in Belgium, and only weeks after he won his first British title with an impressive performance in the national event at Lake Bala, Wales. Completing the 2km swim, 80km bike ride and 20km run in 3hr 47mins 15secs, Gilfillan was one of only two of the 600 competitors to finish in under four hours.
This past week the Club also waved goodbye to Keith Mahon and Barbara Walton who fly out to compete in the Age Group Triathlon European Championships in Spain having qualified to represent Great Britain at both this event and at the Worlds’ in Beijing in September via wins in major Sprint Triathlon qualifying events earlier in the year plus. Barbara (pictured right) also gained a medal for GB in last years World Championships in Budapest. Both qualified for the European Championships competing at Belvoir Castle earlier this month where Keith (50-54 age group) completed the 750m open water swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run in 1 hr 9mins 12secs and Barbara (60-64 age group) in 1 hr 29mins 55secs.
And finally, Peter Kirk, 56, became a National Champion in his age group at the 2011 Masters Championships in Sheffield with a winning time of 2:27.7 in the 200m Freestyle. Back in the pool the next day, and having swum seven races in two days, he had to settle for silver in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 1:04.25, a mere nine tenths behind the winner!
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World Class Iron Man
An impressive performance from Littledown Masters’ James Gilfillan in the Florida sunshine earlier this month has resulted in the club celebrating its’ first amateur Half Iron Man World Champion.
Finishing the half Iron Man course in a time of 3hrs 54mins, James completed a 1.2 mile swim in 24mins 44secs, a 56 mile bicycle race in 2hrs 6mins followed by a 13 mile run in 1hr 19mins. With 149 athletes competing in his age group (30-34yrs) James was some five minutes ahead of his nearest rival and also emerged as overall fastest from all age groups where a total of 1457 athletes started the course.
A separate event for professional tri-athletes was held at the same time and James, who has a full time job in local government in Poole, would have finished 22nd in that competition. A truly phenomenal performance!
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Masters Inter-County Championships 2010
British record holders Jean Howard-Jones and Nic Vaughan led the way as the Dorset Masters team achieved one of its best results in the South West round of the ASA National Inter-County Masters Competition. Hosting the event at the Oxley Leisure Centre in Sherborne, Dorset kept within a point or two of perennial winners Devon for most of the gala, eventually finishing just 7.5 points adrift.
Howard-Jones, 67, the oldest woman in a 33-strong Dorset team whose ages ranged from 21 to 70, swam six times and won all six the individual Womens 65/o event on each stroke and two relays with individual 50m times of breaststroke 47.72, backstroke 50.99, freestyle 34.42 and butterfly 43.49. Vaughan, 46, won the 45/o 50m freestyle and butterfly in 26.24 and 28.58 and the 35/u backstroke in 32.72. Laura Bale recorded two individual wins for Dorset in the 25/o 50m backstroke (33.19) and butterfly (32.53). Other individual winners were Robert Lloyd-Evans (65+ breaststroke 46.01), Peter Grounds (55+ backstroke 39.46), Andy Small (45+ backstroke 31.09), Les Jessop (55+ freestyle 31.51), Sarah Meaker (18+ freestyle 28.29) and Tom Cunningham (25+butterfly 27.99).
Dorset also showed its strength in the relays by winning nine of the 20 events, often finishing half a length ahead and lapping the competition more than once, and coming second in a further nine. Race by race results of the ‘virtual’ gala are now available www.swimming.org showing Dorsets final national placing as 11th out of the 29 counties participating.
Thanks also go to Sue and Andy Smart, our mandatory officials, and to the small group of Dorset supporters who made the journey to Sherborne together with Kirsty Heard, Laura Bale and Elaine Lewis who took on extra swims at a few minutes notice.
RESULTS: Devon 212; Dorset 204.5; Wiltshire 158; Somerset 92.5.
DORSET TEAM: Bere Regis – Bob Holman; Bournemouth SC – Kirsty Heard; Bournemouth Dolphins – Tom Cunningham; Ferndown SC – Cathy Hartle, Jackie O’Connor, Andy Small; Littledown Masters – Peter Kirk, Carol Moss (Littledown); Poole SC – Sean Heppell, Jean Howard-Jones, Elaine Lewis, Joe Lewis, Robert-Lloyd-Evans, Judy McRae, Sarah Meaker, Tony Perrella, Rachael Potter, Lee-Jay Robertson, Nic Vaughan, Alan Werring, Karen Yendole; Seagulls – Martin Scott, Kostas Stamatakis; Wareham – Pete Grounds, Les Jessop; West Dorst – Laura Bale; Weymouth – Helen Dickens, Tony Flattery, Becky Kelly; Weyport Masters – Linda Ashmore, Kate Mason, Paul Mason, Murray Shackleford. Team manager: Roger Guttridge.