As usual a hardy group of Otters made the annual pilgrimage to Sheffield for what turned out to be the largest sauna party in the world. As poolside temperatures soared into the 40’s most swimmers were keen to dive into the plunge pools just to cool down. Any PB’s bagged along the way were purely incidental.

 

Steam levels amongst the girls were ratcheted up a further few notches when Mark Foster proceeded to lay waste to the 50m freestyle world record (35-39 age group) with a time of 21.53. Fortunately readers will be relieved to hear that the usual Swedish sauna etiquette was not observed and modesty was kept in tact by enough fastskin cloth to dress the population of Stockholm. Sadly the number of swimmers and the heat haze prevents a mention for all the weekends triumphs and therefore the following is merely a haphazard round up of assorted highlights rather than a wikepeiasesque analysis of each length as it happened….

 

Captain Gina led from the front and bagged four individual golds and a silver. Theres nothing like a bit of interclub rivalry and pride of place was the 100m backstroke where a good Otter head to head with Catherine Dobson helped to inspire some additional effort. Gina was up first and set a PB at 50m before taking 2 secs off her 100m time in 1.10.12. Not to be out done, Catherine also set off at a furious pace and looked to have it in the bag before being touched out with a time of 1.10.40 to take silver medal in her age.

 

Perennial crowd pleaser Derek Parr staggered home with 5 golds despite protestations of lack of training due to his dramatic commitments as Henry V. This didn’t stop him scooping the GB record in the 100m butterfly and join the sub 1.10 elite - ahh we few, we happy few…..  Fighting alongside King Henry in the same age group, Roger Philips took silver in the 50m Fly and bronze in the 50m Free while Tony Ray had strong placings in the 100 back and 50m Free. Rick Jones also put in a fleeting appearance at the battle and just missed out on a medal in the 200m breaststroke.

 

Once more unto the blocks came Jane McMenemy who along with appearing as the poster girl on the cover of the event program decided that some new events might liven up the Sheffield weekend. This didn’t seem such a great idea come Sunday morning when the 200m butterfly was underway. Jane however had put the extra hour in bed to good use and romped home to take silver in a new PB and provide the photographer with plenty more material for next years program. Apparently however this event will not be repeated for some time. Michelle Senecal on the other hand cant keep away from such tortuous events and its hardly surprising why. She made it look all too easy (although theres definitely time to be gained on those turns) and took a gold gong home as a reward.

 

Not content with just medals, Rob Williams spent the weekend bagging national records. Macedonian masters records. For the geographically uninitiated, Macedonia is a small country located somewhere between two other countries you haven’t heard of whos claim to sporting fame was holding England to a draw in the Euro 2008 qualifiers and no doubt helping to make sure that you‘ll be able to spend next summer training harder rather than watching the finals. By my logic this all means that if the English cant beat the Macedonians and Rob is the best Macedonian then Rob is better than the entire England football team. Maybe its best not to over analyse some outstanding swims.

 

Also taking a bevy of medals was Rachel Joyce who proved again that she is undisputed distance queen with golds in the 400m and 800m free. Rach also proved she’s no slouch over the shorter distances and was fastest female Otter in the 100m free - just missing out on the glory of the sub-minute performance. Taking the fastest Otter prize overall was Dan Misklzwkckxkvulzskis whose 100m freestyle time of 53.39 was not only an awesome PB but also good enough to win bronze in a highly competitive age group. Dan also had fantastic swims in the 100m IM and the 100m breaststroke amongst others.

 

Other Otters who slipped under the minute for 100m free included Andy Hudson in 57.85 who goes from strength to strength in this event, Jason Parrish in 57.02 who was then never seen again and Adam McCarthy in 58.79 who proved that you can do great times by shouting at other swimmers rather than doing it yourself.

 

Other gold medallists were Jane Leighton (200bk & 200IM), who swum an amazing 200bk and led many to question why she bothered with all that breaststroke training, Jane McMenemy (100fc) and Fiona Marshall (100br, 100IM).

 

First time swimmers for Otter at Sheffield should also get a mention including Ana Ochocinska, who set down some tough targets to beat,  Andy Bloxham whose running training clearly worked in the pool, Lisa Wujec (aka Mrs Silver Fox), Tim Lam, Sophie Hemsworth, Cate Dobson, Lesley Cook (in Otter colours, at least!), and Adam McCarthy.

 

Finally, huge thanks to:

Lesley for arranging our shelter and food

Steve for his coaching advice, enthusiasm and for introducing acronyms such as HVO and BBM into the popular Otter lexicon

Klaudia for her skills with the video camera – looking forward to seeing the result on the big screen

And the non-Sheffield swimmers and polo players who backed off training for the couple of weeks prior to the meet and who accepted, with very little complaint, the lane movement; training now returns to normal!

 

Inspired? Start small with Otter Club Champs events over the next few weeks and hopefully see you all for Sheffield next year ……