Williams on World form in Doha

The 2024 World Masters Championships took place in Doha, Qatar just two weeks after the small (but increasingly influential) Middle Eastern State successfully hosted the elite Championships. With its swelling sporting infrastructure post the FIFA World Cup, World Athletics Championships and Artistic Gymnastics Internationals - swimming saw a similar injection of cash with multiple 50m pools (indoor and outdoor) and elaborate facilities all built from scratch.  Many Masters from Great Britain made the trip to the Arabian Peninsular, including City of Southampton's own newcomer Tom Williams (25-29yrs). An alumni from Southampton University, Williams competed over three days of the week-long competition, mixing with some of the pedigree names of the discipline from across the globe. In his own words:

'In my age group (25-29) I ranked 21st in the 50m breaststroke (00.34.12 - originally seeded 24th), 26th in the 50m freestyle (00.26.98 - seeded 29th) and 14th in the 100m butterfly (01.02.90 - seeded 21st).

It was pretty well run – they had a few call rooms and screens in each one where it showed you the current top times of the event and how many heats were ahead of you. You had to dump all your belongings in a box a few heats before yours. They also got you to run out one by one into the arena right before your heat. It could have come across quite intense, but I thoroughly enjoyed it – I am a big fan of competitive atmospheres!

There were 3 10x50m pools to swim in. Onewas in the competition arena (as seen on televison!), second one was next door and the third one was outside. Everyone was super friendly and it was easy to get around.' 

Swim England notes that over 100 medals were won by the British Contingent, an outstanding set of results given the standard of competition - which always surprises with several names of Olympic calibre. The event also saw some impressive Open Water, Diving and Artisitc Swimming results from Team-GB...including some remarkable 1m and 3m dives from an 88-year-old Lithuanian! 

Full results can be found here. Still trying to get back in-sync post COVID, the next World Aquatics Championships are set for Singapore 2025 - time to rack up the air miles!

James MacTavish

CSSC Masters