A team of around 22 Otters made the trip to flood-affected Manchester last weekend for the Long Course National Masters Championships.  It was great to see Otters we haven't seen for a while -- Pete Kirk, fresh from La Santa; Peter Rae, returning from shoulder injury; Catherine Couquet, over from The Netherlands; Liz Redpath, fitting us into her hectic summer schedule between Ascot and other events.

Otter of the meet

Dan Cotton in his masters nationals debut and return to competition after over 10 years, took the triple in the backstroke, silver in the 200IM and almost a GB record in the 400IM with his goggles full of water.  Dan was without doubt the swimmer of the meet for the Otters, and we wish him and Mrs Cotton all the best with baby due in around 2 weeks! 

Gold, Gold and more Gold!

The marvellous Derek Parr took out the butterfly triple as usual, and entered his usual punishing programme of distance freestyle and even a medley.  With self-confessed lack of preparation and sporting a wild new hairstyle, the shorter events appeared to be less painful than the longer ones.

Among the gold medal winners were myself, with gold in the 50 free and 50 breaststroke. Gina Hobson won gold in the 100 & 200 backstroke and also the 100 freestyle.  Jane Leighton (in her nationals debut for Otter) took gold in the 400 and 800 freestyle and  Michelle Senecal won the 200 fly, Stuart Ventham (our X-age group representative) won the 200 backstroke.  Jason Parrish in a brief appearance, posted masters PBs for his swims, and even sneaked a silver medal in the 200 freestyle.

The tough age groups...

Jane McMenemy without doubt has the toughest competition in any age group, being pushed back to 3rd and sometimes 4th place with 3 of the fastest women overall in her events and age group - often racing each other to GB and European records.  Macca's times frequently would win the younger age group categories, although not her own.  Catherine Couquet also faced some tough opposition, but came away with a bronze medal in 100 free.  New Otter from Leatherhead, Neil McMahon, was unfortunately head to head with Dan Cotton for almost all of his events, but managed some medals and might even be convinced to taper next time.

The relays… (and the records that weren't)

We fielded a full complement of age groups in the relays, and won some medals to show for it.  We also managed to break GB records in 3 events -- the mixed 120+ freestyle and medley, and the ladies 120+ medley -- but all teams had a non-Brit swimming one leg, so none will be recognised.  It was very satisfying to post the fastest time overall and beat the younger teams in these events, and great to have Dylan Malagrino on the team for the last time.  Thanks to Gina and Tony for the work on the teams.

The suits…

If you thought that swimming wasn't about the kit, then think again.  Dan Cotton only managed one race in trunks before being convinced to try some legskins.  He then succumbed and purchased a pair to wear for the rest of the competition.  Pete Kirk picked himself up a full body (long arm) suit and appeared to be ecstatic with his resultant 100 freestyle time.  Andy Hudson trialled a body suit for the first time and came away with PBs for all his events.  The swimshop did a roaring trade, the quote of the weekend was "if you haven't done the training, just buy a smaller/tighter suit"...

The winners?

Who knows…? there was an overall team trophy again this year for the competition, and the rumour is that Spencer won this and the Otter team were second ahead of Swindon.  The results weren't announced regularly and don't seem to be posted anywhere.

Thanks very much to Steve for all the support on pool deck. 

Tony will send around the usual summary of the Otter results and a medal table, in the meantime you can follow the link below to the full results.  We will also get the latest rankings up on the Otter website, for those who are interested.
Results