Bill Letch wins South West Masters Swimming Award
Congratulations to Bill Letch of Exmouth SC who has been awarded the South West Region Masters ‘Swimmer of the Year’ trophy for 2018.
Author: Sue Haigh
DEVON MASTERS OPPORTUNITY TO SWIM 800m and 1500m
This year as a trial event, masters swimmers will have the opportunity to swim the 800m and 1500m along with the age-group swimmers in the Devon County Championships. In effect our Masters Long Distance events would be incorporated into the Devon County Championships.
Masters will have ONE separate heat per event & so there will be a maximum of 10 swimming spaces per distance. Both events will take place at the Life Centre and will be swum in the long course 50m pool. The 800m will take place on 11 January and the 1500 on the 22nd February.
This year entries will be taken on a first come first served basis.
with your name, club, SE number & date of birth
Entry fee is £6.50
2020-flyer-Development-Day.pdf
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NATIONAL MASTERS INTER COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
The Regional round of the National Masters Inter County Championship took place at Millfield on Sunday.
Teams from Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Devon all took part in a varied programme with swimmers ranging in age from 18 to 82.
The Devon Team, comprised:
Mark Ashton Warren Barrett
Darren Beer Katelyn Bergin
Emma Bickley Jane Bickley
Fin Bowden Emma Challis
Matt Clarke Graham Cridland
Tegan Drew Tara Dudley
Sue Haigh Matt Henry
Tom Hughes Ann Humphris
Rebecca Jenkinson Bill Letch
Nye Levett Andy Matchett
Alex McCrae Fiona Mullin
Jamie Page Shelagh Ratcliffe
Adam Reed Danielle Scagell
Charlie Smith Ollie Taverner
Katie Townsend Nigel Travers Griffin
Simon Veale Kalon Veale
Levin Veal Sue Walker
Rob Will Terry Windeatt
It was in every way a brilliant team effort, with each swimmer ‘pulling out all the stops’ to help Devon win by a convincing margin of over 90 points!!!!
My thanks go to Kalon Veale for his expert team selection and to Karen Adams and Mel Jeynes for supporting the team in their official capacity.
The final scores :
Devon 355
Gloucestershire 264
Wiltshire 240
Dorset 230
Cornwall 230
Somerset 175
It will be interesting to learn how we have fared against other Regions in the National competition.
Sue Haigh
DEVON MASTERS TAKE 21 NATIONAL TITLES
Congratulations to the Masters swimmers from clubs all over Devon who took part in the National Championships in Sheffield at the end of October. By the end of the weekend, Devon had produced 21 National Champions.
Pride of place must go to Totnes Swimming Club.
Simon Veale swam to victory in seven events, the 100m and 200 IM, 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m fly.
Kalon Veale took the 50m 100m and 200m backstroke titles along with the 200m IM; Margaret Bickley the 100m back and 200m breaststroke and Dan John the 1500 freestyle.
The newly formed club Exe Masters also had its share of gold medals.; Adele Parham in the 400 individual medley, Philippa O’Grady in the 200 individual medley and Sue Haigh in the 200 back with the Exe Masters 72+ mixed freestyle team of Tara Dudley, Victoria Malcolm, Jim Capron, Adam Tapp winning gold ian exciting tussle with the team from Exeter Swimming Club.
Stephen Hurley of Exeter Swimming Club won the 1500m freestyle and Warren Barrett from the Exeter University alumni team took the 50 butterfly title.
The Exeter University alumni team of Warren Barrett, Ilya Skliarov , Nye Levett and Josep Massey also took the 100+ 4 x 50m freestyle title
There were also many other great swims & podium positions that can be seen from the results below.
Devon-Results.xlsx
DEVON COUNTY SWIMMERS TRIUMPH IN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
County Team Championships 2019
Having finished 3rd the previous year and runners up in 2017, both times to Yorkshire, spirits were high that maybe this was the year that Devon would top the podium.
Team coaches Dan Dew – Plymouth, David Hill – Exmouth, Glenn Currie – Exeter, discussed with the squad at their team meeting at the hotel on the night before the racing that it was important to race hard and fast but at the same time support each other in the team and have a good team spirit, most of all be loud, colourful in team colour face paints and have fun.
Under the guidance of Lynn Rayment as Team Manager – Plymouth and this season’s chosen captains of Reid Jones – Plymouth and Macy Lawrence – Mount Kelly the team was ready for action.
As usual after the opening races the leader board chopped and changed but as racing settled down it wasn’t long before Devon was on top and began to gradually increase their lead. .Team spirit was high and the noise was deafening.
When the half time interval arrived and Devon had a clear lead, captains Reid and Macy gathered the team for a ‘team talk’ to motivate the squad even more and told them to all support each other and to race to the finish.
Racing was going well, even with the re-race of the girls 14/15 backstroke due to a technical problem. Good points were being picked up in all events to extend Devon’s lead, the chasing pack of Northumberland & Durham, Yorkshire, Scotland West and Kent kept on trying but to no avail.
Wins from Honey Osrin – Plymouth in the 100m backstroke, Cameron Williams – Dartmoor Darts in the 100m breaststroke, the boys 16/17 year’s Medley relay ( Ra-eez Warley, Filippo Coacci, Sam Perks, Reid Jones) and the girls 16/17 years Medley Relay ( Honey Osrin, Lucia Grant, Olivia Marshall Macy Lawrence all helped to seal the county’s first ever win in this championship.
Of course, the success of the team was also down to the high amount of top 5 finishes within the 31 races, of which 18 were top 5 finishes, proving the strength and depth of Devon’s swimming talent. To add to this 26 of the 31 races were top 10 finishes.
The Top 5 final leader board was as follows with Yorkshire relinquishing their crown that they had held for 3 years running
|
Place
|
Club
|
Points
|
|
1.
|
Devon
|
469
|
|
2.
|
N & Durham
|
439
|
|
3.
|
Kent
|
438
|
|
4.
|
Scot West
|
419
|
|
4.
|
Yorkshire
|
419
|
This year’s team consisted of the following swimmers
Reid Jones – Plymouth
James Wheatley – Mount Kelly
Macy Lawrence – Mount Kelly
Imogen Lambert – Mount Kelly
Jasmine D’cunha – Dinnaton
Cameron William – Dartmoor Darts
Joshua Williams – Plymouth
Caoimhe Quinn – Mount Kelly
Sophie Freeman – Plymouth
Joshua Gammon – Dartmoor Darts
James Hart – Plymouth
Ella Osborne – Exeter City
Honey Osrin – Plymouth
Finn Broekhoven – Plymouth
Sam Perks – Plymouth
Filippo Coacci – Plymouth
Ruby Griffiths – Plymouth
Blythe Kinsman – Plymouth
Lana Broekhoven – Plymouth
Bella Hodges – Mount Kelly
Hubert Gdaniec – Plymouth
Aidan Watts – Plymouth
Ra’eez Warley – Plymouth
Ella Bardgett – Plymouth
Lucia Grant – Plymouth
Harriette Lewcock – Paignton
Sara Sari – Exeter City
Olivia Marshall – Plymouth
Aiden Symons-Brown – Devonport
Thanks must go to the travelling officials,Tom Osborne, Exeter and Elaine Hedger, Barnstaple, who supported the team over the weekend and also to the Devon County President Roger Bossom, and our County Secretary Karen Adams, who were both on poolside cheering on the team.
One of the Team coaches Glenn Currie spoke with swim England after the event and he praised the team for their hard work yet fun approach to the championships.
“We come here and we have some fun. We came to race hard from the start and it’s just a great experience for us all. We said in our team meeting that we should just go have some fun, race hard and it’s worked.”
MASTERS
MASTERS
2019 DEVON COUNTY MASTERS MEET
The first Open Devon County Masters meet was held at Plymouth Life Centre on 30th June.
Entries were more than double the previous year and there was some excellent swimming on show which certainly more than justified the Devon County Swimming Committee’s decision to make this an open event.
Graham Milne( 65-69) of Truro set a new British record (subject to ratification ) in the 100m fly with a time of 1:09.09 with Allie Price (50-54) of Cardiff Masters setting two new Welsh records in the 400m freestyle 05:11.58 and the 100m Individual Medley 1:12.54
Congratulations to all those who set Regional records; a special mention goes to Anne Humphis from Barnstable who posted South West Regional records in every one of her events.
Grateful thanks go to all the officials and everyone who helped in the setting up and smooth running of this event.
Sue Haigh
Devon Masters Rep