Otters Celebrate Success at SE London Masters

On Saturday 17th May, a group of Otters made a splash at the SE London Region Masters Championships. There was no shortage of Otter grit on display, with medals and top finishes earned across the events. A special shoutout to Jessica Shaw, who broke her own British record with a stunning 29.68 in the 50m Backstroke (F25–29)!

In total, Otters brought home:

  • 🏅 22 Gold,

  • 🥈 11 Silver,

  • 🥉 15 Bronze

Medalists:

  • Jessica Shaw – 4 Gold

  • Kim Liu – 4 Gold

  • Emily Wood – 2 Gold

  • Janet Chan – 2 Gold, 2 Silver

  • Lei Ping – 2 Gold, 3 Bronze

  • Alice Dinsdale-Young – 1 Gold, 3 Bronze

  • Hattie Goff – 4 Gold, 1 Silver

  • Elizabeth Shaw – 1 Gold, 2 Silver

  • Chris Daniels – 1 Bronze

  • Callum Batten – 1 Bronze

  • Luke Thomas – 3 Silver

  • David Moores – 2 Gold, 1 Silver

  • Anatoly Bugakov – 1 Bronze

  • Craig Gillespie – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze

  • Megan McDonagh – 1 Gold, 1 Silver

  • Harry Robinson – 1 Gold, 1 Bronze

  • Sarah McDonald – 2 Bronze

  • Peter Rae – 3 Gold

  • Peter Vider – 3 Gold

  • Fraser Peh – 2 Gold

  • Laura Chapman – 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze

  • William Roberts – 1 Gold, 1 Bronze

  • Thomas McLean – 2 Gold, 1 Bronze

  • Maria Pitteri – 2 Gold

Great job everyone — excellent mid-season form across all distances and strokes!

2025 English aquathlon championships and Swim England Masters open water success

This weekend a romp of Otters went to Nottingham and Sheffield to compete for national titles in the English Aquathlon Championships and Swim England Masters Open Water Championships.

 

26/07/25 English Aquathlon Championships - Holme Pierrepoint, Nottingham

Warmish weather meant the swim was wetsuit optional with most taking advantage of the neoprene boost. For the stronger swimmers, the 750m swim (rather than the international standard 1km) meant the mixed terrain run with a few sharp changes in elevation was all the more challenging. All a good test and rehearsal for British Champs in Porthcawl in August.

  • Isis Ciurleo (F20-240) - 4th (4th female)

  • Pip Bennett (O40-44) - Silver (4th overall)

  • Chris Daniels (O55-59) - 5th

    Full results here

27/07/25 Swim England Masters Open Water Championships - Rother Valley Country Park, Sheffield

Water temperature was a shade over 20 degrees, so wetsuits were forbidden (there are different rules for open water and multisport). The lake was generally pleasant but the air temperature meant many athletes were shivering while they tried to recover for their next events. Changing robes and warm drinks were very much in evidence. Otter had some superb results...next year let's try to field some relay teams (mixed 4 x 400m), too!

5km

  • Hayley Davis (F40-44) - Gold (7th female)

1km

  • Callum Batten (O30-34) - Bronze

  • Hayley Davis (F40-44) - Gold (4th female)

  • Pip Bennett (O40-44) - Gold (3rd overall)

  • Chris Daniels (O55-50) - 4th

  • Simon Williams (O60-64) - 4th

  • Richard Croydon (O65-69) - Bronze

3km

  • Michanne Steenbergen (F30-34) - Silver (10th female)

  • Callum Batten (O30-34) - Bronze

  • Hayley Davis (F40-44) - Gold (9th female)

  • Pip Bennett (O40-44) - Gold (2nd overall)

  • Chris Daniels (O55-59) - Bronze

Special mention to Hayley whose epic 3 national titles (a repeat of 2019) was picked up by Swim England.
Full Results here

 

2024 Quarter Mile

This year’s quarter Mile took place at Brockwell Lido and was a triumph for the waterpolo section. The event was won by Mitchell Boyer, followed by Chris Eden, Lee Stokes and Alex Bion. They all improved considerably since last year’s quarter mile and must have put a lot of work in to improve their swimming.

Behind the leaders was a relatively close pack of the swim section with Nico Barber leading out on Chris Daniels and Luke Thomas.

Results 2024 QM

Well done to all who swam and special thanks go out to Alex Bion for organising not only the swim but got us a space in the Prince Regent pub across the road for some well deserved food and drinks!


John Goodbody's Bosporus swim

When you reach the age of 80, you know your long-distance swimming days are long past. But I thought I would celebrate my birthday with one final, albeit brief, effort --the annual four mile cross Bosporus event in Istanbul. Encouraged and aided by Ozan Kurtcu, who coached Otter members at Marshall Street over the summer, I prepared with a number of long steady sessions in lakes, the sea and pools, at least with the knowledge that unlike the Channel and the Cumbrian lakes, the one thing I need not worry about was the cold because the water in Turkey was as warm as some London indoor facilities.

Although the race was not until Sunday August 20, I went out three days early as I had not visited Istanbul before and wanted to take the chance of looking round a fascinating city. I also confirmed my registration and got my accreditation --all done efficiently by volunteers and officials of the Turkish Olympic Committee, who put on the event.

John and Ozan

John and Ozan

The race was superbly organised with close attention to detail such as an examination of one's nails before boarding the boats to go to the start. If they are too long and so might scratch fellow-competitors in the hurly burly of the start, clippers were provided. There were 2500 entries and I was the fourth oldest with a cap 004, only regretting I was not the seventh oldest. People start in waves with timing done automatically by means of a electronic bracelet round one's ankle, which is activated on entering the water and then registers your time after having climbed up one of the ladders at the end.

The swim was far less of a challenge that I had expected. Hot sunshine, a following wind and above all an extremely strong  favourable current, demonstrated by the winner's time of 41 minutes (for four miles !), while I did one hour seven minutes. I went wrong at the end and didn't get close enough to the bank towards the finish which probably cost me two minutes, having to battle briefly a cross current. Afterwards, you were given food and drinks and a large towel.

Although I entered, thanks to Ozan, through the Turkish Olympic Committee, Swim Trek run trips out there but places are at a premium. It was a rewarding experience but anyone doing the swim should make sure they leave plenty of time for sightseeing. There are historical resonances everywhere in the city. 

John Goodbody

John's profile on The Times & profile for The Guardian

Wouter ten Hag: Why I Joined Otter

My name is Wouter ten Hag and I joined Otter for a slightly different reason.

I'm a trainee stunt performer and in order to become a fully-fledged stunt performer I needed to pass a swim test. The swim test was there to prove athletic ability but also stunt-specific scenarios like swimming with clothes on, swimming underwater and rescue scenarios. You can imagine a stunt performer who falls off a boat needs to be competent enough and be able to swim out of the frame without being seen on camera.

I'm thrilled to announce that I've passed my swim test!

I've been training with Otter since October last year, and without the well-designed training plans and technical help from the coaches, I could not have passed the test. I improved my abilities to the point that I had passed my expectations of how well a swimmer I could be. They even allowed me to swim with my clothes on, which also was a funny sight to the other members.

I'd like to thank Otters and the coaches for the space to train and, once my stunt training has finished, I hope to be back!

Wouter ten Hag

Aspire Jackals' channel swim

On Sunday morning I went back to the beach to sit and reflect on what the Aspire Jackals team did a couple of days before when we swam across the English channel. At 0200 on Friday 7 July I slid off the side of our support boat, the Gallivant, into murky looking water and swum 50m to shore to stand, spotlighted, under the white cliffs of Dover. With a brief opportunity to reflect on the magnitude of what we were about start and to consequently feel pretty small, the horn sounded and off I went. Physically, I found that first hour swim from 0200 the most challenging: I lost feeling in my hands and feet pretty much straight away; I struggled with positioning myself so that I could see the boat in the dark, not be blinded by the spotlight beaming down on me, and avoid the diesel fumes; and then my mind occasionally drifted into thinking about what might be beneath the surface. I was glad to be given the sign I had 15mins to go – and was disappointed to find that those final 15mins were tortuously long. Time did very weird things for all of us in those end stretches!

The Jackals team came together at the end of 2021 as a group of local friends of friends’, all triathletes or Masters swimmers. We fancied the idea of giving a channel relay swim a go and raising money for charity (Aspire) at the same time. We were scheduled to attempt our swim in Sept 2022. Cue spending the spring and summer of 2022 jumping into various lakes, reservoirs, and bits of the south coast to make sure that we were properly prepped for the challenge. And then the weather stepped in. We were unlucky to hit an unsettled period where there were no long windows of calm seas and little wind. We had to postpone and accept that 2022 wouldn’t be our year. While this was very frustrating at the time, in hindsight I think it brought the team together and meant that we really appreciated having the opportunity in early July 2023. And when the weather gods properly smiled on us it was the icing on the cake.  

My second and third swims (getting in at 8am and then 2pm) were idyllic in comparison to the first. Beautiful blue/green sea, amazing water clarity, the sun baking down, and barely a ripple. I’ve watched some of the video of these swims and I just relax – which doesn’t feel right as at the time I definitely wasn’t relaxed while I powered on as hard as I could. There’s an odd disconnect but seeing myself float along just makes me exhale and feel at peace. And then, just 12hrs40mins after starting, I had the privilege of finishing our swim on rocks just down the side of the Cap Gris, with the rest of the team jumping in so we could swim in and touch land together.  

I’m not sure what my expectations were of how I would feel after. I do a lot of ploughing up and down a swimming pool, so technically 2-3 hours of swimming was physically in my comfort zone. But this was swimming at max for sustained periods (not my normal 50m dash!), in the middle of a not very warm sea, not to mention a busy shipping lane, managing sleep deprivation and possible sea sickness, and all the good things that the sea can throw at you (jellyfish – gah). Safe to say I was absolutely physically broken by the end – I had to be literally peeled off the floor when Dave came to pick me up and over the weekend I slept for 22 of the 48 hours. My brain felt pickled, my spine was as stiff as an old twig, and my arm was sporting some nice jellyfish welts. Safe to say I underestimated the physical demands!  

And then I think about the team of six swimmers, plus our Aspire team leader. A group which didn’t really know each other at the start of this journey. Who shared over the course of that boat trip some of our biggest vulnerabilities, challenges, highs and lows. We were there to support one another, to be a crutch when we saw it was needed, and ultimately come away feeling a powerful sense of belonging. Not forgetting raising a good chunk of cash for a deserving charity. I definitely underestimated the power of a team and the magnified sense of shared achievement by doing something hard with a lovely group of people.  

And so now it’s back to reality. The pull of a shared goal isn’t there anymore and it can be easy to feel at a bit of a loss and lacking some purpose. One of my reasons for writing this it to recognise that we asked a lot of ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally and to turn straight from that into the next challenge might not be the healthiest – re-charging is probably very necessary. I’ll be taking it easy for a bit and enjoying the glow of creating memories which will stick with me for a very long time.

Gina Hobson

Otter Mile 2023

The Otter Mile this year started under a grey sky. Although some swimmers showed initial relectancy towards swimming in colder-than-QMSC temperatures! Howver, isn’t that one of the charms of open water swimming? We didn’t measure but the more experienced open water swimmers reckoned it was a balmy 18C ;-)
There were three trophies to be won in one single race.
The trophy for first male swimmer went to David Adamson who fought a long side-by-side battle against Pip Bennett who had to let David go in the last couple of metres.
The trophy for fastest female swimmer went to Alice Dinsdale-Young. Well, we know where the trophy is and we’ll hand it to her on the next occasion.
The Jack Cunningham Salver trophy for best handicap race is going to John Goodbody. John has clearly been doing some extra training and finished in 34:40. Not bad for somebody who is just over three times the age of the youngest participant!

The Vets 50 free

If you believe the banter on the Mature Otters mailing list, this has to be the most important event of the year. Martin Flash won this back in 2019 before the pandemic hit and prevented us from doing much swimming, let alone racing.

Martin didn’t fail to mention once or twice that he held on to the Synge-Hutchinson Challenge Cup for 2 years! The rest of the Mature Otters did put him in his place in that this was not much of a feat. The email converations became rather heated and one even read “Blood in the water in the 8th!”
I know, you wouldn’t expect that when you see the Mature Otters around the pool on an average Thursday night, but come Vets 50 Free night and the fierce competitors come out!

Unfortunately for Martin, he couldn’t quite beat his handicap time this year. Two gentlemen however managed to beat the expectations: Anthony Ray and Simon Williams! The rest of the field came very close to their handicap time and all finished within 0.6s. Well done to David Addison, Bob Thomas, Martin Flash and Chris Daniels.

Simon Williams was definitely too fast for the rest of the field and deservedly cycled home with the cup securely fastened on his back. Well done to Simon. I’m sure he realises his handicap for future events has just become slightly more challenging ;-)

Simon Williams with the Synge-Hutchinson Challenge Cup

Handicap races update

I know that some will say that Camille bribed her way to the win in last Sunday’s 150FS handicap race, but the truth is that she did swim very fast compared to previous times. And that’s what it comes down to in handicap races. So well done Camille.
In second and third place we have Richard Croydon and Alex Fraster (welcome back!). Richard climbs up in the overall ranking and is now joint second with Chris Daniels and Pip Bennett. Two points clear of them is Alice Dinsdale-Young.
This can all rapidly change though with two handicap races on Thursday and the 200 handicap next Sunday!