Masters Pipped at the Post

Event:  Wiltshire Masters Block 3 Venue:  Salisbury Leisure Centre Date:  3rd October 2009

The third and final block of the Wiltshire Masters competition took place last Saturday at Salisbury Leisure Centre.  Dolphin went into the final round with a slight lead over Salisbury, but the hosts ensured a good turn out of swimmers and closed the points gap on the night to win the overall contest by 77 points.

As with round 2, Dolphin only managed to field a team of 12 swimmers, but with far less experience in the ranks, achieving top three places to gain points this time would prove far more difficult.   Jose Adam and Brian Davis were dominant as usual in their age groups, racking up maximum points in all five events, with Chris Lock winning all four of his swims.   Other first places went to Anthony Clark (50m breaststroke), Alan Minns (50m freestyle) and newcomer to masters swimming John Cholod (50m freestyle).  Also racing for the first time was Andy Garrett who narrowly missed a medal finishing fourth in the 50m breaststroke.

Martin Hayward had his work cut out in the 50-54 years age group, finishing with two hard earned second places (25m butterfly and 50m freestyle) and two thirds (100m individual medley and 25m backstroke).  Dave Ingram earned himself one second place (50m breaststroke) and one third (25m butterfly).  Making a return to training with Dolphin was Jan Petr who was delighted with his second place (50m breaststroke) and two thirds (25m backstroke and 50m freestyle).  Other top three finishes went to Dean Fouracre (3rd 100m individual medley and 3rd 50m breaststroke) and Cally Gould (3rd 50m breaststroke).

Despite everyone’s efforts, Salisbury put on some fine performances and their depth in the women’s age groups ensured them of this years overall top team award.  In the male individual 40 years and over award, Dolphin’s Brian Davis just had the edge over Peter Seward of Marlborough, winning by just one point, whilst in the female competition, Jose Adam also won the over 40 category by three points over Warminster’s Jane Sneddon.

Final Team Scores: 1 Salisbury 369 2 Swindon Dolphin 292 3 Swindon Area Masters 271 4 Bradford on Avon 181 5 Warminster & District 96 6 Marlborough Penguins 95 7 Wootton Bassett Otters 61 8 Trowbridge 60 9 Corsham 42 10 Wroughton 7

Full results are available on the Masters Competition Page.