Cornwall County ASA Masters Report

This is Carrick’s most popular event of the year with our largest number of swimmers racing. Firstly a big thank you must go to the officials without whom the event could not go ahead, with a particular shout out to our club officials; Fran Baker, Dan Corbett,  Adrian Dupuy, Alison Russell and Scott Varker. It was also great to see current Head Coach Cathy, and incoming Head Coach Nigel racing and supporting swimmers poolside, making plans for future training no doubt. We also had several first timers at a masters meet who all enjoyed their experience and will be back again racing for Carrick. For some it had only been a few years gap since racing as a youth, for others it was a slightly more distant memory or completely new experience.

As a team we had 34 personal bests, 35 gold, 17 silver and 12 bronze medals accumulating 388 points to rank us as the second team out of the 24 in attendance. Amongst our medalists were para swimmers Maddy Daniell and Aiden Coxhead. 18 new club records were set, showing the club going from strength to strength; Hannah Davies 4, Monique Clark 3, Sarah Quartermaine 3, Jeremy Salmon 2, Sarah Hicks, Ninette Hibbs, Fran Baker, Neil Hitchman, Paul Bradbeer and Paul Wolstenholme 1 a piece. Several of these were also county records, yet to be updated so I cant name them all, but special mention to both the men’s and women’s 240-279 (Catherine Ralph, Alison Attfield, Frances Baker and Maria Szuplewski) age group medley relay teams for their new county records. The men’s record was smashed by over 20 seconds and had stood for 15 years, what a fast line up of Nigel Goldsworthy, Malcolm Barton, Graeme Milne and Jeremy Salmon.

Aside the medals and records we’d love to hear your opinions on the race of the meet, so perhaps can have an award at the end of the year. For me two swims stood out, Steve Carter’s 100 free, he seems to PB every time he swims, knocking 5 seconds off his 100 free entry time, or Sarah Hicks’ 100 IM, racing for the first time at a masters meet, 12 seconds faster than her entry time showing strength in all 4 strokes. We may have come out second in the team points but I definitely felt like a proud member of the best team there, great atmosphere, support and team spirit.

Report by Sarah Quartermaine.