Gloucester Masters bring Gold for Southampton

New to the Southampton Masters calendar, Gloucester has hosted a popular veterans event for several years - proving popular not just with the West Country, but increasingly so with much of Wales, the Midlands and Armed Forces. With an expectionally busy June period on the horizon and just weeks' away from the closing of Phase.1 British Masters, the City's varied distance programme drew in considerable crowds all seeking to snip a few seconds off their Season's Bests.

A quartet of Reds made the two hour journey through the pictureque Cotswolds (well, one of them did...beautiful region of England!), representing a broad gammet of age divisions. Tom Williams (25-29yrs) honed his sprint skills over the 50m Butterfly (00.28.65) and 100m Butterfly (01.03.76) for solid Top.5 finishes, and rewarded with a Silver-lined podium place on 100m IM (01.07.25). Annie Belasco (35-39yrs) stepped into the full Butterfly events for the first time, landing a Top.5 over the 50m Butterfly (00.38.91) - narrowly missing metal, but rewarded with a title winning 100m FC (01.14.80) to claim Southampton's first Gold. 

Far from the last though, with Tim O'Brien (70-74yrs), fresh from success at the Royal Navy Meet, striking a glittering array of Golds over the 50m FC (00.34.36), 100m FC (01.16.73), 50m Breaststroke (00.42.36) and 100m Breaststroke (01.35.75). An early flourish from James MacTavish (40-44yrs) made it a hit for six when he took an unexpected 200m Backstroke (02.41.91) title. The coach rounded off the overall medal haul with Bronze in both the 100m IM (01.10.17) and 100m Butterfly (01.09.32). 

A neat little meet, and one to certainly revisit next year - meantime, the squad will move on to the most anticipated event of the year, as British Masters finally moves to the London Aquatics Centre for what is set to be an epic long weekend of racing and, most likely, record setting (maybe not so much the latter for us, but will be fun to watch!)

Medal tally:

GOLD : 6

SILVER : 2

BRONZE : 3

TOTAL : 11

James MacTavish

City of Southampton Masters