On the 14th of June several team members made the trip to Swansea, Wales to represent Silver City Blues at the British National Masters Long Course Meet 2019. As a result, the team secured an array of achievements from personal bests all the way to European records.
Friday Session 1 first saw the team competing in the 800m Freestyle with Gillian Main confirming her long course converted time from Inverclyde last year with only a second on. Next an impressive swim from Alison Findlater going out with a commanding lead from the start and holding to the end, taking an impressive 37 seconds off her entry and securing a Bronze medal. June Falconer continued her return to the pool securing a Bronze medal whilst Keith Dunnett continues to build race experience for the World Masters Championships. Kelly McIntosh continued her good form this year taking 3 seconds off her entry time and both securing a Gold medal and a Scottish record. Finally, Audrey Cooper continues her record-breaking year, securing a gold medal and a European record.
Session 2 had Gillian and Alison competing first in the 100m Freestyle, Alison again taking 2 seconds off her entry time. Next was Peter Long and Chris Ferguson getting their first swims in, again in the 100m Freestyle with Peter just missing his entry time by 7 hundredths. The session finished with the 400m IM with June, Kelly and Keith all securing Silver medals and Kelly also breaking a Scottish record. Not content with one European record for the day, Audrey secured a gold and broke a second record. Time for some ice cream.
Session 3 saw Keith competing in the 200m Breaststroke and Kelly in the 50m Back. Kelly finishing the day with another Silver and a Scottish record.
Saturday Session 4 firstly had June in the 100m Butterfly securing another Silver medal. Next was Keith, Alison and Audrey in the 200m Backstroke, Keith securing a Bronze medal whilst Audrey claimed a Gold and a Scottish record. Audrey, Peter, Alison and Chris then swam in the 200m Mixed Medley Relay finishing in 4th position.
Session 5 kicked off with Peter, Gillian and June in the 200m Freestyle, Gillian taking an impressive 5 seconds off her entry from British last year whilst Peter secured a Silver medal. The session finished with Keith in the 100m Breaststroke and Alison in the 50m Butterfly taking just under a second off her entry.
Session 6 started with Keith, Alison and Audrey in the 200m IM, Alison again dropping a second off her entry time. Audrey secured another Gold medal and this time a British record. Peter, Chris and Gillian finished day 2 with the 50m Freestyle. Time for some team nutrition and hydration in the usual SCB fashion.
Sunday Session 7 began with Gillian, Alison, Audrey, June and Greg Smedley in the 400m Freestyle, Gillian dropped 9 seconds off her entry whilst another powerful swim from Alison saw her drop 19 seconds and secure a Bronze medal. Last swim from Audrey securing her final Gold and European record. Chris, Gillian, Alison and Peter finished the session with the 200m Mixed Freestyle relay finishing in 4th position.
Peter started off the final session with strong 50m Breaststroke taking off a full second against his entry and finishing joint 1st with Mark Jones of Warrender in the same heat. One final swim from Silver City saw Greg, Alison, Gillian and Peter in the 400m Mixed Freestyle relay race off against the Aylesbury 160 team and secure the last Gold medal of the competition (almost, they’d run out by this point).
In all it was a great competition with a lot of success as a result of hard work. Overall out of 174 teams competing, SCB finished joint 16th. Well done team.
