Chris Dunn came home in a time of 22.47.90, knocking nearly 4 minutes off the British record and 2 minutes off the European record, to win the 80-84 age group.

Also winning their age groups were Jennifer Kelly (40-44) in 23.13.01 and Christine Lutsch (45-49) in 22.50.90. 

Relay World Record

Chris then stayed on for the relay gala in the evening, joining up with Esther Iseppi (back), Amanda Heath (breast) and Clive Benson (fly) to break the world record for the 280+ Mixed Medley relay.

“We knew we had a chance of a World Record” said Amanda, “but after Esther fractured her wrist when we were in Abu Dhabi for the Open Masters Games last month, we thought it might be a tough ask. Almost fully recovered, Esther swam a great 100 backstroke leg and at the half way point we knew the record was within our grasp. Clive and Chris swam fabulous splits and we ended up over a second inside the old record, which was set in 2015 by a team from Tamalpais Masters in USA. Prior to that, Spencer held the record, with Esther (then on fly), Nigel Salsbury, Diane Ford and Geoff Stokes, so it’s nice to get it back again”.

The Team then went on to break Spencer’s European records in the 4x100m free (set last year at the same meet) and 4x50m free (set in Japan in 2023), and also broke the European record in the 4x50m medley held by a Hungarian team.

For their efforts, they were awarded the trophy for the Top Team performance.

Much further north, Suzanne Maidment was racing in Aberdeen, checking out the venue of the GB championships in June. Newly aged up to the 60-64 age group, she had some great swims, winning gold in the 200 breast and silver in the 200 and 400 free.

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In the 65-69 category, Amanda Heath won golds in the 400 free, 50m, 100m & 200m breast and silver in the 400m IM.

Guy Emerson 60-64

50 back Gold 34.83

100 back Gold 1.19.18

Suzanne Maidment 60-64

100 free Silver 1.15.32

200 free Gold 2.45.67

400 free Silver 5.53.83 

100 breast Silver 1.39.12

200 breast Silver 3.37.29

Amanda Heath 65-69

50 breast Gold 43.22

100 breast Gold 1.33.12

200 breast Gold 3.19.17

400 free Gold 5.58.55

400 IM Silver 6.43.72

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The event kicked off with the Open Water Swimming, on Hudayirat Island, with perfect conditions and a water temperature of 21 degrees. Michael Read and Jamie McKay were competing in the 5k and won gold and silver respectively, while Tony Cherrington and Alan Parkins both won gold in the 2.5k and Amanda Heath took silver in the 1.5k.

On to the pool events, where everyone medalled in all their events, with some great swims.

Individual Race Results

Michael Read – 85+ age group

GOLD 5k, 400m, 800m free and 200m & 400m IM, SILVER 100m, 200m free

Tony Cherrington – 80+ age group

GOLD 2.5K 50m, 100m, 200m 400m free

Alan Parkins – 65+ age group

GOLD 2.5k, 50m, 100m back, 100m fly, SILVER 800m free, 200m back

Jamie McKay – 40+ age group

SILVER 5k

Ivan Nechunaev – 35+ age group

GOLD 50m free (lifetime best of 24.16), 50m fly, SILVER 100m free, 100m fly

Amanda Heath – 65+ age group

GOLD 200m breaststroke, 400m IM, SILVER 1.5k, 50m, 100m breaststroke, 200m IM

Esther Iseppi – 65+ age group

SILVER 100m fly, 200m breast

This was an amazing achievement for Esther, as she slipped and fell the evening before the pool events, badly injuring her wrist. 3 days later, she was able to race tentatively, starting in the water and having to work hard to catch the rest of the field. Sadly, she had to miss her other events.

The event presentation was extremely professional, with competitors announced individually as they walked out from the call room, and the medal presentations were highly choreographed.

Media Coverage

The media were keen to record stories from competitors, with Spencer swimmers featuring in some of the videos shared during the event and on social media. Check out some of the videos below by clicking the links.

Spencer Swimmer’s Stories (video)

Michael’s story

Esther’s story

Esther and Amanda’s story

The Masters Games are quite different from other International Masters swimming events, encouraging athletes of all abilities from around the world to unite in competition and friendship. The medals were truly stunning and the message on the medal box inspirational: “Wellness is the real victory”.

Read more about International Masters Games Events here:

https://www.imga.ch

Athletes are encouraged to participate in, watch and support other sports and one of the highlights was a trip to the camel race track (to spectate, not race!)

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For some, it was a chance to make their mark in their new age group, for others, it was a chance to dust off the cobwebs and make a line in the sand for the rest of the year, and for most, it was a chance to catch up with teammates and have some fun racing.

Firmly in the first category was Chris Dunn, who has aged up to the 80-84 age group – he certainly made his mark on the record books with World Records in the 200m and 400m freestyle, a European Record in the 800m freestyle (knocking nearly a minute off the old record, and narrowly missing the WR), plus British records in the 50m & 100m freestyle and 100 & 200 backstroke. In total, he won an amazing 9 gold medals! Chris’s results are as follows: 

Chris Dunn (80/84)

200m freestyle 2:38.32 – Gold, British, European & World record

100m freestyle 1:13.89 – Gold, British record

100m backstroke 1:29.19 – Gold, British record

50m freestyle 32.25 – Gold, British record

400m freestyle 5:42.79 – Gold, British, European & World record

800m freestyle 11:55.54 – Gold, British & European record

200m backstroke 3:11.53 – Gold, British record

50m butterfly 48.15 – Gold

50m breaststroke 50.58 – Gold

This inspiring performance by Chris pushed other Spencer swimmers to deliver the goods, too.

Jess Campbell made a speedy appearance on Saturday morning to sweep up a gold medal and Scottish record in the 55-59 women’s 800m freestyle in a time of 11.14.88.

Esther and Amanda were up to their usual tricks, entering the same events, and taking 1-2 in the 50m, 100m & 200m breast and 400m IM, with Amanda taking an additional gold in the 200m IM.

More Spencer 1-2’s came from Matthew Taylor and Simon Berrey in the 55-59 men’s 50m back and Robyn Le Friec and Katarina Read in the 35-39 women’s 50m fly. Matthew also took bronze in the 800m free and 4th place in the 200m, while Simon won the 200m back, adding silver in the 100m back and 4th place in the 100m free. Robyn made it a double gold with a win in the 100m fly and Kati won the 200m IM.

More Spencer medals came from Helen Cumber, who won gold in the 30-34 women’s 100m back, and silvers in the 50m and 100m free. It was silvers all round for Suzanne Maidment, who came 2nd in the 200m & 800m free, and 200m breast. Jen Kelly won silver in the 400m free and was 7th in the 50m free, while Luca Milana brought home bronze in the 200m IM.

Simon summed up the weekend “Aside from the record breakers, there were some mere mortals racing at Crawley this weekend, me included… Times not important, but I still managed a gold and 2 silvers. However, being an out of towner, the best of all was catching up with people I only see at meets like this.”

Full Results and times are in the following link:

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Spencer was represented by Ivan Nechunaev, who had a great meet, picking up 2 silvers and 2 bronzes in the 35-39 age group. The silvers came in the 100 IM in 57.45 and the 100 freestyle in 51.77, where a fabulous last 25 brought him within a quarter of a second of the gold. A time of 55.85 won 3rd place and a bronze medal in the 100 fly. The 50 sprints were hotly contested in all age groups, and Ivan’s second bronze came in the 50 free in a time of 23.34, just 0.12 behind the winner. He also took 6th place in the 50 fly in 25.31.

Alan Parkins, swimming for his home club, Crawley, won silver in the 65-69 100 back in a time of 1.14.55, and took 4th places in the 50 back, 50 fly and 50 free.

The next European Championships will be Long Course, 21-30 Aug 2026 in Šamorín, Slovakia, where there will also be Open Water events, to be swum  in a backwater of the Danube. The short course championships will return in 2027.

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It was the backstroke events which brought in the most medals, with John winning gold in the 100m back and bronze in the 50m in the 50-54 age group. John also swam in the 50m and 100m fly: “I was really pleased with all my races, and they were all PBs since I started back swimming again. It has really helped me train with Spencer over the past few months, and it has been nice to be able to swim some 100m races again”, he said.

Godfrey (70-74) won silver in the 100m back and bronze in the 50m, in season’s best times. Still on backstroke, there were bronzes for Guy (60-64) in the 50m with a 32.64, his fastest time for 6 years, and Matthew (55-59) in the 200m. Alan won the 65-69 50m gold in a lifetime best of 33.27 and also took silver in the 50m and 100 fly.

In the 80-84 age group, Tony won silver in the 50m free, while Michael medalled in 6 of his 7 events, with silver in the 400m & 800m free, 200m & 400m IM and bronze in the 1500m free and 50m fly.

The girls won 2 golds each, with Robyn (35-39) winning the 100m and 200m fly, and taking bronze in the 50m, and Amanda (65-69) winning the 100m breast and 200m IM, with a silver in the 800m free. Amanda said “I normally have a full programme of 8 individuals and a few relays, but this year I experimented with just 3 events and swam on the Sunday only. It definitely worked for the 100m breast, as it was a season’s best by 2.5 seconds. I think the 800m directly afterwards was an event too many though!”.

Robyn, Alan and Tony also won multiple relay medals for their respective teams.

This major event in the Masters Calendar saw Trafford Metro win the Otter trophy for Top Team for the 4th consecutive year, and many World, European and British records broken.

The full results can be found here

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The outdoor 8-lane 50m competition pool (with a smaller warm-up/swim-down pool) is right on the beach in Limassol, with 3 and 4-star hotels a few minutes walk away. Equidistant from Larnaca and Paphos airports, where there are frequent flights from all over the U.K., it’s the ideal location to combine pool racing with sea swimming, relaxation and autumn sunshine.

The Meet attracts competitors from all over Europe and beyond – this year there were teams from Malta, Slovakia, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Germany, Ireland to name a few, with flags from all the nationalities decorating the poolside.

Our motley crew of 65-69ers came from far and wide to compete for Spencer. Esther (Guernsey) and Amanda love racing each other, so they chose the same events, achieving 1-2 in the 50m, 100m and 200m breast, 200m and 400m IM and 200m back. Fran (Cornwall) joined them in the 400m IM and 200m back to make it a Spencer 1-2-3. She went on to win the 800m and 1500m free. Adopted Spencerite, Lisa, from the US won the 400m free, came 2nd in the 100m, 3rd in the 50m and 4th in the 50m breast.
Alan was undefeated in his events, the 100m, 200m and 800m free, and 50m back and fly.
The ladies also won the 240+ 4×50 freestyle relay.

A great time was had by all, with everyone winning medals. It was a very relaxed and friendly meet, with breaks for presentations and plenty of time to meet new friends. So maybe forget the hassle and stress of entering Sheffield next year and head to Cyprus instead, especially if you love racing outdoors, or have never experienced it before. Dates for next year are 17th-18th October 2026, and chat to Amanda, Esther, Fran or Alan if you’d like to hear more about it.

Full results are here

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It was great to see new Spencer Team member John Fitzgerald smashing his fly and backstroke races and to have “out of country” member Hoda Elridi over from the Netherlands, racing for Spencer again.

The individual events took place in the morning and afternoon sessions, with team events in a fast and furious evening session. The Spencer 240+ team of Hoda, Amanda, Matthew and Godfrey won all 3 of their events, the 240+ mixed 4x100m & 4x50m medley and 4x50m free relays, beating most of the 200+ teams in the process. This put us in 6th spot for the overall Top Club Award for relays, based on points for placings, and in 5th place for the Top Performance Club based on performance of the club’s best 3 relays relative to British records.

Highlights of the individual events were Matthew Taylor going under 5 minutes for 400m free with a 4.58.11 and event best performances from Godfrey Admans in the 100m backstroke beating Spencer member Nigel Salsbury‘s time from 2011 and Amanda Heath beating Spencer member Diane Ford’s time from 2009 in the 50m breast. John Fitzgerald also achieved an event best performance in the 50m backstroke, with a 29.57, beating his own time from last year.

Individual results:

Hoda Elridi 40-44

100m backstroke, gold

200m IM, bronze

Godfrey Admans 70-74

50m backstroke gold

100m backstroke gold/SER meet best performance, 1.28.79

50m freestyle 4th

100m freestyle 4th

100m IM 4th

John Fitzgerald 50-54

50m backstroke gold/SER meet best performance, 29.57

100m backstroke gold

50m butterfly silver

100m butterfly gold

 Matthew Taylor 55-59

50m backstroke gold

100m backstroke silver

200m backstroke gold

400m freestyle bronze

Amanda Heath 65-69

50m breaststroke, gold/SER meet best performance, 42.14

100m breaststroke, gold

200m breaststroke, gold

200m IM, gold

400m IM, gold 

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Have you ever seen a Spencer silver or gold swim cap and wondered how to get one? The secret is out! They are prizes in the Spencer Mile Open Water Race! After a break of a couple of years, the event made a very welcome return to the calendar in 2025 at a new venue – Denham Lake – thanks to the brilliant organisation of Jennifer and Coach Steve.

Check in was at 9am for a 9.45am start, when Spencer had the use of the whole lake to ourselves. The “mile” consisted of 2 x 1k laps of an easy-to-navigate course parallel to the iconic Colne Valley viaduct for HS2, the recently completed longest railway bridge in the UK.

Early on the scene, in a preview of the race to come were out of towners Matthew, Alan and Amanda (in that order) who were there in plenty of time to survey the course, discuss tactics and don their superfast wetsuits.

Steve gave the briefing, where we learnt that there would be two waves, with the men starting 5 minutes behind the women. There was then a big debate about how cold the water was and whether the fastest guys could catch the fastest girls. There was only one way to find out, so the girls slithered off the pontoon and into the water. The answers: a very pleasant 17-18 degrees and no, of course they couldn’t!

The race produced some very close finishes, with Matthew spotting the pontoon finishing line to overtake Alan in the final stretch, and Clare and Laura touching together.

Post race, we enjoyed Denham Water Ski club’s hot showers, changing facilities and coffee bar, as well as home made focaccia, banana bread and muffins kindly provided by race participants. Then, on to the prize giving, where everyone won a gold, silver or blue Spencer cap for coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd in their age group.

The best thing: everyone felt so great after a brisk morning swim and socialise. Here’s hoping that more folk will join us for next year’s race.

Results:
Wetsuit women:
Lisa Scott – 37.24, 1st, 20-29
Alexandra Bullen-Smith – 42.25, 2nd, 20-29
Josie Miller – 34.07, 1st, 30-39
Amanda Heath – 32.09, 1st, 60+
Nicola Malin – 38.52, 2nd, 60+
Overall winner: Amanda Heath

Wetsuit men:
Matthew Taylor – 28.52, 1st, 50-59
Joe Dean – 36.19, 2nd, 50-59
Alan Parkins – 28.54, 1st, 60+
Overall winner: Matthew Taylor

Skins women:
Jennifer Kelly – 33.41, 1st, 30-39
Helen Cumber – 34.19, 2nd, 30-39
Clare Humphries – 37.06, joint 1st 40-49
Laura Mason – 37.06, joint 1st 40-49
Jane Turner – 41.38, 2nd, 40-49
Overall winner: Jennifer Kelly

Skins men:
Alex Hulme – 37.04, 1st, 20-29
Josh Stratford – 37.17, 1st, 30-39
Ross Needham – 32.31, 1st, 40-49
Michael Shaw – 39.51, 2nd, 40-49
Ben Lillywhite – 44.36, 3rd, 40-49
Luke Schuberth – 35.43, 1st, 50-59
Karl Simpson – 36.55, 2nd, 50-59
Overall winner: Ross Needham

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If you want a taste of what swimming at the World Championships is all about, this short video, featuring Amanda and Esther, offers a glimpse into the experience. In the 3rd and 4th year of our age group (65-69) respectively, we didn’t expect to be as competitive as the last 2 years (2023 in Fukuoka and 2024 in Doha), but we were determined to have a great time, and that we certainly did!

We flew out to Singapore on 22nd July, arriving on 23rd July, ready for the 3k Open Water event starting on 26th. Things hadn’t looked good when the Elite Women’s 10k event was postponed due to poor water quality, and our Training Day on 25th was cancelled for the same reason. We went to bed on the 25th, not knowing if we would be able to swim or not. Up bright and early, we made our way to registration on Sentosa Island, where we found out the race was going ahead. In all honesty, I am not too sure if I was pleased or not! The conditions really were as brutal as some of the Elite swimmers had said – the water was 30.2 °C (the maximum allowed for safety reasons being 31 °C), and it was dirty and choppy, especially when the ferries passed by, very close to the barrier separating us from the shipping lanes. 

But Spencer swimmers are a tough bunch and of the 5 medals won by GB swimmers, 3 of them were claimed by us.

Results as follows:

26th July – Women

65-69 2nd Esther Iseppi – 59.22.0

65-69 4th Amanda Heath – 1.00.08.9

27th July – Men

40-44 3rd Jamie Mackay –  52.40.9

80-84 1st Michael Read – 1.27.32.1

The relatively slow times reflect those brutal conditions!

On the 27th July, Esther, Amanda and Jamie & family had the opportunity to watch the first finals night of the Elite pool events, and get a glimpse of the amazing temporary racing pool in which we would be competing 10 days later.

Whilst Michael stayed in Singapore, Jamie headed home, and Esther and Amanda hopped on a plane to Phuket, Thailand, with four fellow Open Water/pool swimmers, for a much-looked-forward-to training camp.

With reports of US & GB elite swimmers suffering food poisoning/stomach viruses from their holding camp in Phuket, we were glad that we had chosen a different location on the island. We had use of a wonderful covered 50m pool, the services of an excellent Polish coach, yoga and stretching sessions, Thai massage (ouch!), Thai boxing (which we wimped out of), and local excursions.

9 days later we were fully acclimatised to the time zone and hot weather, had sharpened up our racing skills, and headed back to (more humid) Singapore for the pool events. Meanwhile Guy and Suzanne had arrived and the full Spencer team was ready to race.

There were 2 competition pools in use each day, the permanent OCBC Aquatic Centre and the temporary World Championships Arena, each with their own 50m warm up/cool down pool. The pools were roughly 10 minutes by foot away from each other, and the men and women’s events alternated between each. The pool events kicked off on 7th August, with a day of 800m freestyle. On 9th August, there was a break to celebrate Singapore’s 60th anniversary of independence, a National holiday, and the events culminated with relay day on 14th August.

And here are the results!

800m freestyle

80-84 Michael – 7th, 17.28.93

55-59 Suzanne – 14th, 12.26.90

400m freestyle

80-84 Michael – 8th, 8.32.99

55-59 Suzanne – 19th, 5.56.61

200m freestyle

80-84 Michael – 9th, 3.57.99

55-59 Suzanne – 26th, 2.54.64

50m freestyle

60-64 Guy – 34th

200m breaststroke

65-69 Amanda – 1st, 3.20.17, Esther – 4th, 3.23.73

55-59 Suzanne – 15th, 3.45.36

100m breaststroke

65-69 Amanda – 2nd, 1.32.15, Esther – 6th, 1.35.62

55-59 Suzanne – 21st, 1.40.89

50m breaststroke

65-69 Esther – 5th, 42.27

100m backstroke

60-64 Guy – 10th, 1.17.28

50m backstroke

60-64 Guy – 11th, 34.46

200m fly

65-69 Amanda – 4th, 3.23.92

400m IM

80-84 Michael – 2nd, 10.57.11

65-69 Amanda – 1st, 6.41.10, Esther – 3rd, 6.50.43

200m IM

65-69 Amanda – 3rd, 3.10.49, Esther – 6th, 3.12.70

4×50 freestyle, 280-319, 2nd – Guy, Amanda, Michael, Esther

4×50 medley, 280-319, 2nd – Guy, Esther, Amanda, Michael

So, including the Open Water, the final medal tally for Spencer was an amazing

3 gold (Michael, Amanda x2)

5 Silver (Esther, Michael, Amanda, relays x2)

3 bronze (Jamie, Esther, Amanda)

The full results may be found here (click on summary tab).

https://results.microplustimingservices.com/MastersSingapore2025/#/schedule-bydate-json/1/*

Spencer swimmers: Guy Emerson, Michael Read, Jamie McKay, Suzanne Maidment, Esther Iseppi, Amanda Heath

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