After a winning start to the month at the Bracknell Masters and Welsh Masters Championships, Spencer has been marching towards more success in the pool.
At the weekend, Spencer swimmers had a mega record breaking evening at the South East Region Relay event at K2 Crawley on 22nd March, breaking 3 European records in the space of 70 minutes.
The Team of Chris Dunn, Godfrey Admans, Esther Iseppi and Amanda Heath beat Spencer’s own records in the Mixed 280+ distance relays, all previously set at the same event in 2023.
In the 4x200m free, they took 9 seconds off the current record, setting a new best time of 11:30.65. The 4x100m medley was next up, with Godfrey on backstroke, Esther on breaststroke, Amanda on fly and Chris on freestyle, racing to 5:51.10, which was more than 10 seconds inside the previous record. Finally, their 4x100m free knocked 8 seconds off the record.
This was all after Chris Dunn had won the men’s 75-79 age group 1500m freestyle earlier in the afternoon with a time of 22:38.83 (notably faster than the winners of the younger 3 age groups!).
Also swimming in the 1500m were Jennifer Kelly, who took 3rd place in the 40-44 age group in 23:32.29, and Sara Luder who was 6th in the 55-59 age group in 26:58.62.
Derby Winner
The previous weekend, out of towner, Alan Parkins knocked over 2 seconds off the British record for the men’s 65-69 400m IM, swimming 6:12.59 at the Derbyshire County championships, where he also won the 200m IM.
Cold Water Swimming
Also on the weekend of 16th March, in slightly less serious circumstances, a team of plucky Spencer swimmers competed in the Heron Cup at Tooting Lido. As the sun rose over Southwest London, the ambient temperature remained stubbornly low but contrastingly pleasant relative to the temperature of the water, which peaked at just over 7°C.
It was a morning for hot drinks, woolly hats and dry robes, as our swimmers tried to keep their core temperature up long enough to complete the event. A brave and commendable effort by all those who took part, and a lot of fun was had. Thanks to the club members and families who came along to offer their support.
With four teams going head-to-head in a series of individual and relay races, the competition remained tight going into the last event, the cannon relay. Starting off, Spencer fell behind the rest of the field, but gradually overhauled the deficit to take a commanding lead. Would it be enough to win?
Yes, it would, much to our surprise. Spencer has done a clean sweep of the SLSC Lido summer relays and won the Heron Cup, showing Tooting Lido is a successful venue for the team. Now for the cold water training to defend the team’s title.
