From Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, 42 Otters competed at the SE Masters National Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. Across three days of short course racing, the team finished second overall on 482 points, behind Trafford Metro (625) and ahead of Crawley (333).
Otter brought home 73 medals:
39 gold
22 silver
12 bronze
That is 50 individual medals and 23 relay medals. With British and European records broken, national titles across the age groups and a long list of personal bests, there was plenty to celebrate.
Individual highlights
Matt Rogers led the medal haul with 12 medals, nine of them gold. His five individual titles came in the 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and all three individual medleys, including a dead heat for gold in the 200m IM. Jess Shaw was Otter's most decorated woman with nine medals: five gold, three silver and one bronze. Her 1:03.00 in the 25-29 100m IM broke the British record.
Derek Parr and Roger Lloyd-Mostyn each went eight for eight: eight swims, eight golds. Derek (80-84) won five individual titles, while Roger (85-89) took four, with the pair adding relay golds and three British and European records broken apiece. Age really was no barrier to a busy weekend.
Stephen Braine collected seven medals, six gold, and David Moores won seven medals (four gold and three silver). Sophie Elphick also took home seven (two gold, two silver and three bronze), while Alex Mackay won six (four gold and two silver), including individual golds in the 200m and 400m IM.
Hayley Davis won individual golds in the 1500m freestyle, 400m IM and 200m butterfly, plus silver in the 200m backstroke. Peter Vider added two individual golds and two silvers, and Luis Martinez Del Pozo took an individual medal of each colour. Individual podium places also went to Liz Shaw, Michanne Steenbergen, Pip Bennett, Robert Thomas, Jared Golden, Rowena Moores and Jack Chen.
Individual club records
Matt Rogers set five overall club records in Sheffield: 200m freestyle (1:53.20), 100m breaststroke (1:01.14), 100m IM (57.52), 200m IM (2:04.90) and 400m IM (4:27.23). Jess Shaw set overall records in the 50m breaststroke (32.23) and 100m IM (1:03.00).
The age-group records fell across the board. Roger Lloyd-Mostyn set every 85-89 freestyle record from 50m to 1500m, plus the 50m butterfly. Hayley Davis set 40-44 records in the 1500m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly and 400m IM, and Liz Shaw set 60-64 records over 50m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.
Alex Mackay set 30-34 records in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 400m IM; David Moores set 30-34 records in the 50m freestyle and 50m and 100m backstroke; Sophie Elphick in the 100m breaststroke and 200m IM; Antonio Alfano in the 55-59 50m and 100m backstroke and 100m IM; Luis Martinez Del Pozo in the 70-74 50m and 100m breaststroke; Christian Howitt in the 25-29 50m freestyle; and Robert Thomas in the 80-84 100m backstroke. Harry Robinson also broke the men's 25-29 50m freestyle record, before Christian lowered it again one heat later. Alex also broke the overall 200m freestyle record, before Matt took it in the next heat.
Relay records and titles
The men's 320+ squad supplied three of the weekend's biggest moments. Robert Thomas, Derek Parr, Roger Lloyd-Mostyn and Stephen Braine clocked 5:59.64 in the 4x100m freestyle and 13:22.46 in the 4x200m freestyle. In the 4x100m medley, Thomas, Luis Martinez Del Pozo, Parr and Lloyd-Mostyn swam 6:32.44. All three swims broke British and European records. The 320+ team also won the 4x50m freestyle, Thomas, Peter Vider, Lloyd-Mostyn and Braine adding a club record 2:35.56 to bring the age group's relay haul to four golds.
That was only part of the record haul: Otter set 16 relay club records across the weekend, four of them from the men's 100-119 squad. Matt Rogers, David Moores, Harry Robinson and Alex Mackay produced one of the swims of the weekend in the 4x200m freestyle: their 7:40.42 smashed the club record, took more than five seconds off the previous British best and dipped inside the old European record - and still finished second, beaten only by a Woking quartet whose 7:39.02 took both records. The same squad added the 4x100m freestyle (3:28.43), and both medleys with Dylan Fairclough: 1:45.05 in the 4x50m (with Robinson) and 3:51.27 in the 4x100m (with Mackay).
The men's 72+ team added two more: Christian Howitt, Lucas Lawman, David Moores and Dylan Fairclough in the 4x50m freestyle (1:34.49), and Josh Patel, Joseph Burrin, Lawman and Howitt in the 4x100m medley (4:00.21). The 160-199 men took both medleys, through Antonio Alfano, Jared Golden, Douglas Flockhart and Alex Mackay (1:54.78 in the 4x50m) and Alfano, Stephen Potvin, Douglas Willetts and Golden (4:23.37 in the 4x100m).
The women set records in the 100-119 4x50m freestyle, Jess Shaw, Sarah Turner, Sophie Elphick and Ibby Szenes swimming 1:50.50, and the 72+ 4x100m medley, Shaw, Elphick, Sarah Ambrose and Rowena Moores swimming 4:30.80. The mixed crews completed the set: Shaw, Matt Rogers, Ambrose and David Moores in the 72+ 4x50m medley (1:51.62), and Shaw, Rogers, Moores and Ibby Szenes in the 100-119 4x100m medley (4:02.28).
Otter won 11 relay titles in all. Beyond the 320+ successes, golds came in the men's 100+ 4x100m freestyle and medley, women's 72+ 4x100m medley, mixed 72+ 4x50m medley, mixed 100+ 4x200m freestyle, and mixed 100+ and 160+ 4x100m medley. Another eight silver and four bronze relay medals showed the depth of the team.
Personal bests
Sheffield also brought a wave of personal bests: 55 short course bests across 22 Otters, alongside several age group bests.
The lifetime bests included five for Jared Golden across breaststroke and freestyle, and four apiece for Rowena Moores, taking her 200m backstroke down to 2:26.29, Suzanne Lewis, including more than five seconds off her 200m freestyle (2:29.62), and David Moores, with bests in the 50m and 100m backstroke, 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly. Joseph Burrin dipped under the minute in the 100m IM (59.94) among his three, Sarah Turner and Laura Chapman added three sprint bests each, Hattie Goff with two in the 200m and 400m freestyle, and Lucas Lawman took his 100m freestyle to 52.76, nearly a second faster than his previous best. There were lifetime bests too for Christian Howitt, Douglas Willetts, Harry Robinson, Josh Patel, Kim Liu and Lei Ping, while Matt Rogers (100m breaststroke and 200m freestyle), Liz Shaw (800m freestyle, 11:21.68) and Jess Shaw (100m IM) added lifetime bests to their medal hauls.
A superb weekend's work from everyone involved. Go Otter!