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Masters

Adele Parham and Philippa O'Grady Masters Swimmers

Photo: Somerset Masters swimmers Adele Parham and Philippa O'Grady

Many local clubs are positive and enthusiastic about Masters swimming and offer sessions which are open to swimmers aged 18 plus. View our Club Directory for contact details. Abbreviation SC below refers to Swimming Club.

A.N.T SC of Somerset
Backwell SC
Bath Dolphin SC
Bristol Masters SC
Bristol North SC
Bristol Penguin Olympic SC
Bristol South Swim Club		 Cheddar Kingfishers SC
City of Bristol SC
Clevedon SC
Frome SC
Keynsham SC
Street & District SC
Taunton Deane SC		 Team Bath AS
Trident SC of East Devon,
West Dorset
& South Somerset
University of Bath SC
Wellington SC
Wells SC
Weston-Super-Mare SC
Wincanton SC

 

Philippa O'Grady and Adele Parham share the County's Masters Secretarial post after Rosemary Johnson's many years of service. If you would like to support our Masters community by taking on a role such as helping organise our team for the annual inter-county competition, please get in touch.

The South West Masters representative is Sue Haigh (suehaigh11@gmail.com). There is a Swim England Management Group. Other regional and county contacts are listed here.

Swim England's Masters Working Group (MWG) were seeking five Volunteer Masters Working Group Members to join them in providing strategic direction, sport development and membership engagement for the masters swimming discipline within Swim England. See what the roles entail.

The Cherriman Award is presented annually by the Home countries Masters Swimming Management Group to ‘the person or organisation who or which has done the most to promote and foster the cause of Masters swimming in Great Britain.’ Read how to submit a nomination.

Guidance for Running Safe Events

The Government removed remaining domestic restrictions in England and published its plan for living with COVID-19. From 24 Feb 2022 in England you will not be legally required to self-isolate if you test positive for COVID-19. Stay at home if you can and avoid contact with other people. You will not have to take daily tests or be legally required to self-isolate following contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Staff and students in most education and childcare settings no longer need to test twice a week. View Government updates.

Swim England’s guidance documents are available to view at: https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/pool-return-guidance-documents/

Development

Masters Town Hall Meeting 6 May 2021


View topics for discussion.

We publicised a Regional Development Day which Swim England South West had arranged for 26 Jan 2020 at Bath University but unfortunately it was cancelled due to low numbers.

The County provided two opportunities for Masters swimmers to train in Covid-19 secure sessions at Milfield in Oct 2020. View feedback.

We do encourage you to share with Philippa and Adele which types of Development activity for Masters you feel you would benefit from and be willing to support.

 

Within Somerset ASA's Development budget, we encourag more participation in the disciplines of Open Water, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming and Masters.

Masters Workshop

Kevin Brooks, Head Coach of Wycombe District Swimming Club provides real life examples of what his Club does to promote and support Masters swimming in this video presentation.

The Swim England Masters Conference 2018

We publicised the conference at SportPark, Loughborough on 10 November 2018 which featured plenty of lively discussion and debate on all of the issues currenty affecting the Masters community. View report and presentations.

We also promoted the Masters Synchro Conference held on 5 November 2017 at The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Centre, Rugby – the day after the Swim England Synchro National Masters Championships at the same venue. View report.


Competitions
 

 

Video via 1st Element Endurance: Clevedon Masters competing at Hutton Moor in Sep 2018.

The annual Gloucester and Somerset Masters Meet (25m) for both Masters over 25 and ex age-groupers (now over 18) last took place at Horfield Pool in Bristol on Sat 18 May 2019. It also catered for swimmers who had never done this type of event before. View results. 

County trophies numbered 84 and 85 will be awarded for Somerset Masters swimmer performances.

Somerset ASA Swimming Championships 2023

View news item with
- Program, Qualifying Times, Para QTs, and Conditions, and
- (for Club Meet contacts) Hy-tek files
for the event in Jan and Feb.

Time Trials

Swimmers were offered the opportunity to time trial in empty lanes in 800m (25 Jan) / 1500m (9 Feb) events of our most recent Somerset ASA Age Group & Championships (in 2020 at Millfield) as there was little availability of these events elsewhere.

The Inter-County Masters Team Championships

Competition is usually held nationwide on a Regional basis each year.  Philippa O'Grady and Adele Parham select the Masters team to represent Somerset in the South West round.

Somerset came third behind Devon and Gloucestershire in the south west round held at Millfield on 13 Nov 2022 which is an excellent result. View report. We finished a commendable 15th out of all 33 counties in 2022 compared to 11th out of the 21 counties competing in 2021. View summary.

View scores from the 2021 south west round held on 14 Nov at Millfield. 

The 2020 competition was cancelled due to Covid-19.

In preparation for the 2019 competition held at Millfield on 10 November and to encourage Somerset masters swimmers to attend, we arranged a free training session at Oxley Sports Centre, Sherborne, DT9 3QN on 13 October 2019 .

View report of the 2019 South West event at Millfield. The 2019 national results placed us 20th an improvement from 22nd in 2018 and  24th in 2017.

Swim England South West Region Masters Meet

9 Oct 2022 – Millfield Swimming Pool, Butleigh Road. Street BA16 0YD. View entry pack and programme of events.

View report on the Swim England South West Masters’ Meet (25m) held on 29 September 2019 at Hutton Moor LC, Weston-super-Mare.
 

The Swim England Masters National Championships (25m)

28 to 30 October 2022 at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

The 2022 event is the highlight of the national Masters short course calendar.

View news item on the Oct 2021 event. 

The 2020 National Championships scheduled for 23 – 25 October 2020 were cancelled due to Coronavirus. View report of the 2019 event over 25 to 27 October 2019 in Sheffield.

The Royal Navy Open Masters 2022 short course meet took place on Sun 27 Feb at Millfield. View details. The 2020 event took place on 23 February at Millfield. View details.

The British Masters Championships (50m)

The British Masters Championships (50m) 2020 organised and hosted by Swim England (originally scheduled for Ponds Forge, Sheffield from 24 – 26 April 2020) were cancelled due to Covid-19 with fees and spectator tickets for all cancelled events refunded. Swim England did look at the potential of rescheduling the events later in the year if that proved to be viable. More than 1,000 masters swimmers from across the country would normally be expected to take part. Swim England hosts the Masters Championships every two years, with Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales alternating venues in the years between.

Masters swimmers were asked to put forward their views on what format the British Masters Championship should take in 2021. View news item.

Please note Masters swimmers need valid Qualifying Times in British rankings to enter national events. The 2019 British Masters Championships (50m) were held over 14 - 16 June 2019 at Wales National Pool, Swansea.;

Masters swimmers from Somerset competed in the European Masters Swimming Championships in Kranj, Slovenia (2 to 7 Sep 2018) and the 18th FINA World Masters Championships 2019 (5 to 18 August) in Gwangju, South Korea.

The 17th LEN European Masters Championships 2020 originally due to take place in May/June 2020 at Népfürdő u. 36, Budapest, Hungary 1138 were postponed and later cancelled due to Covid-19

Swim England's Just Swim Challenge 30

This is a unique and simple event which determines just one thing – who can swim the furthest in 30 minutes! You don’t have to be a ;Swim England member to enter. It’s open to everyone living in Great Britain between 18 and 108 years old. View 2019's entry details.

Records

Masters Swimming caters for everyone 25 and over, no matter what their ability, There are a number of keenly contested national and international competitions, where British swimmers excel. View the best British performances and links to European and World marks.

These records lists are maintained by David Chaney, the British Swimming Masters Records Administrator.

Record lists are also available for meet organizers in a format suitable for use with Hy-Tek's Meet Manager software - please email David for details.

For Swim England SW record applications, please contact the regional office.

Coaching Resources

Please follow this link for details of how to access Masters Coaching Resources which have now been rebranded as Swim England and can be shared with anyone who has an interest in Coaching Masters. 


Resources

Check out the Club Toolkit for Masters Swimming and other useful documents in the Swim England Library.

Download Masters Handbook which answers common questions about Masters swimming.

Download FAQs for Masters swimmers about competing in open water events.

 

Thinking of joining a Masters Club? Masters swimming is fun! View Scottish Swimming film promoting the benefits of swimming with a club, whatever your age or ability.