What is Masters Swimming?

Masters Swimming is a special class of competitive swimming for adults who are 25 years or older although increasingly the 18-24 year age group are being catered for in competitions. They compete within age groups of five years, with a swimmer's age group in a certain year determined by his/her age on the last day of that year. For example, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, and so on at 5-year increments, the last group being for any age above 100 years!

The rules and distances are nearly the same as for age group swimming. The age groups for relay events is determined by the sum of the ages of each swimmer in a team, allowing for swimmers of very different ages to compete together in the same team. Age groups for relays are 100-119, 120-159, 160-199, and so on at 40-year increments.

This link to the ASA web site http://www.swimming.org/britishswimming/masters/about  provides a lot of information about Masters Swimming.

There is only one exclusively Masters Swimming Club in Cumbria i.e. Carlisle Masters, however the majority of other clubs in the county have members who fall into the Masters classification. These Masters swimmers can be categorised as:

• Those who are swimming for personal fitness but who are available to represent the mainstream clubs in the Arena League and Sprint League to compensate for the lack of older teenagers. 
• Those who compete in local Masters Competitions travelling within northern Britain.
• A few who compete in all levels of Masters Competitions up to the World Championships.

Cumbrian achievements in recent Masters Competitions

The Inter-County competition is held annually across 5 venues, with a common programme and the results being pooled, to show position from 1^st to 26^th.   The results of the 2010 competition are not available at present but in 2009 Cumbria was placed 24^th out of29.  Unfortunately we were not represented in 18 of the 65 events, lacking the appropriate swimmers, but on a more positive note 3 Cumbrians won their events, Craig Elliot (2); Judy Hattle(2) and Graham Pearson (1). 

The 2010 British Long Course Championships were held in June at Tolcross, Glasgow; 3 swimmers from Cumbria gained medals:

Judy Hattle: 6 Gold & 1 Silver

Graham Pearson: 3 Gold, 2 Silver & 1 Bronze

Ian Scott: 1 Bronze & a Fourth

 The 2010 ASA Short Course Nationals were held at Pond’s Forge where Cumbrians gained 8 gold, 4 silver & 2 bronze medals, and Judy Hattle establishing European Records in the 100m Backstroke & 200m Individual Medley and Judy & Graham Pearson being half of a team that established a European Record in the 200+ yrs 400m Medley Relay.  Helen Asquith won silver in the 200m Backstroke & a bronze in the 100m Butterfly.

The major event that attracted the most Cumbrians was the Scottish Nationals at Tollcross in April.  Nine swimmers competed gaining 14 gold medals, 8 silver and 7 bronze.

The Carlisle Masters Swim Meet is held each year in May with next year's due to be held on 14^th May 2011. This attracts swimmers from many clubs and competitors come from as far afield as Ireland, Thurso & Essex. 

The World Championships: Two swimmers attended the World Masters Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden in July.  Judy Hattle being the most successful winning the maximum number of events, 200m & 400m IM, 50m, 100m & 200m Fly, the last of which was in a European Record.  Graham Pearson was placed 12^th in the 50m, 7^th in the 100m & 3^rd in the 200m Breaststroke and 7^th in the 400m IM.

Judy Hattle has had an extremely successful year establishing European Records in 12 events and British records in a 4 further events.  Her 100m & 200m Fly short course times being World Records.