The Otter team cam back with a sizeable medal haul, including gold in the 100-120 ladies fc relay, comprising of Gina Hobson, Michelle Senecal, Ruth Morrison and Lisa Wujec (1.55.76); world champions – well done ladies! Silver was won in the 120-160 medley relay team, including Gina, Ruth, Otter first-timer Lizzie Bellinger, and Michelle (2.08.90). The medley was an exciting race and in the end we beat the French team, including world record holder Karlyn Pipes-Neilson, by only a few hundreds to claim second. Both Michelle and Lizzie swum storming legs and Michelle clinched second behind the punchy Japanese team. The team’s time was well under our British Record pace, had Michelle been British! However, some jiggling about for the nationals in Manchester should see the British, and maybe even European, record tumble.


In the individual races, butterfly was certainly Otter’s strength. Lizzie came away with two silver medals in the 50 and 100 fly (29.78 and 1.07.34) and was unlucky to get pipped to the first spot on both occasions; Michelle also picked up a silver in the 200 fly (2.33.39), and similarly, was in the gold medal position but couldn’t quite hold off the fast-finishing German; Gina sneaked a bronze in the 100 fly (1.09.04) by 1/100sec, which partly made up for missing bronze in the 100fc by 1/10th!
 

Aside from the individual medals, numerous top ten finishes were achieved. Some of the highlights include Lisa posting a very speedy 1.04.86 in the 100fc and scoring 10th; and Anna Ochocinska’s punishing IM and br programme clearly worked in her favour when she picked up an 8th and 9th in the 400IM (6.15.13) and 100br (1.25.97), respectively. Both Ruth Morrison and Catherine Couquet represented ‘international Otter’ and were glad that they made the trip; even if the Perth weather didn’t quite live up to expectations.
 

Also of note, Otter some-timer, Di Hobson, proved that cycling 1000s of km might be an alternative to the standard pool training and taper, and achieved 17th and 13th in the 50 and 100br (49.63 and 1.46.61). Ric Jones and Tony Ray were ever present to cheer on the team and posted some respectable times themselves. Ric assures me that for the Europeans next September (2009) in Cadiz Otter will be able to boast 2 ‘oldie’ teams – Otter stalwarts, step up!
 

The ‘Otters masquerading as others’ had good meets, with Enrico Hahn achieving numerous pbs; I’m especially in awe of the 7th place in the 200bk (2.30.66), swum in the outdoor pool with the sun was beating down (and why was it the men enjoyed lovely weather when they were outside and the women had to endure rain??). Peter Rae got into his stride as the meet progressed, recording a speedy 2.16.76 and 4.53.08 for the 200 and 400fc, and achieving two 9th places.
 

And so onto Manchester for the GB LC nationals (20-22 June). Applications are available on the GB swimming website and need to be submitted soon (sorry, I haven’t been able to access the exact details – Bali internet is a little temperamental…). Please let me know if you’ll be attending so I can pull together some strong relays.