Woking Masters set spectacular World, European and British Records at Nationals!

The 2023 British Masters Championships saw Woking Masters break multiple British, European, and World Records on their way to finishing as the third-ranked overall club.

The squad returned from the weekend’s racing with 1 World Record, 5 European Records, and 8 British Records.

This incredible achievement came hand-in-hand with 23 gold, 12 silver, and 10 bronze medals, along with several other impressive swims including many personal bests.

Masters Squad coach Seb Leather says: “I continue to be impressed by the team both in and out the pool, I’m in awe of the abilities and applications of every swimmer in the squad.”

The medal and record collection started early on day one of racing for Woking; strong swims from Michelle Ware, David Bryant, Mike Hodgson, and Jennie Clarke resulted in a Mixed 4x200m Freestyle team gold medal, setting new  British, European, and World records in the 200+ age category.

Relay success was quickly followed by individual medals with Rubens King claiming a gold medal in the 400m Individual Medley and Clarke picking up a silver medal in the 100m Backstroke. 

Further medals were added to Woking’s collection throughout Friday afternoon with Henry Goodlud (Silver), Hodgson (Gold), and Bryant (Gold) all celebrating in the 50m Breaststroke. 

Friday evening’s session saw more medals claimed by Woking in both individual and team events.

In the 200m Freestyle Goodlud (Silver) and Clarke (Gold) added to Woking’s ever-growing collection, with Dean Blackman (Bronze), Hodgson (Gold), and Bryant (Bronze) not only adding medals in the 100m Butterfly, Ware went one step further by bagging the British Record in claiming Gold in her age group.

Relay medals were the theme of the day with the Men’s 100+ (Bronze) and the Women’s 120+ (Silver) 4x50m Freestyle teams coming away from their races with silverware.

And relay success continued into day two as both the Women's 120+ (Gold) and the Men’s 200+ (Silver) 4x50m Medley teams, with a further demonstration of Woking’s relay dominance on display later in the session when both the 120+ and the 200+ Mixed 4x50m Freestyle teams claimed Gold. 

With strong swims from Hannah Angell (Bronze) and Jennie Clarke (Gold) in the 400m Freestyle, Woking finished Saturday morning’s session on a high.

Relay and individual records continued to be picked off by Woking throughout Saturday with Ware claiming a British Record in the 50m Freestyle and a British and European double in the 50m Backstroke; not to be outdone, Hodgson picked up a British and European double of his own in the same event; and the Mixed 4x100m Medley 200+ team rounded things off, adding to the record tally by entering the British and European record books themselves.

Even more medals were collected by the Mixed 4x100m 100+ team (Silver), King (Silver) in the 200m Butterfly, Blackman (Bronze) in the 50m Backstroke, Clarke (Silver), and King (Silver) in the 200m Backstroke, and Jamie Cunningham (Bronze) and Blackman (Bronze) in the 50m Freestyle. 

A tired, but determined, squad dived into the final day of racing at Ponds Forge, and it wasn’t long before Woking Masters were once again dominating the pool with King (Gold), Goodlud (Silver), and Bryant (Silver) adding to the collection in the first individual race of the day, the grueling 200m Individual Medley.

Ware had more forms to fill in after claiming another British and European Record double in the 50m Butterfly, with Cunningham (Gold), Blackman (Bronze), and Hodgson (Gold) also picking up medals in the same event.

Woking’s distance swimmers stepped up to the blocks and tumble-turned their hearts out in sessions seven and eight; Simon Scully (Gold), Barnaby Rudd (Bronze) and Hannah Angell (Bronze) added to Woking's already immense collection of medals.

King wrapped up the weekend, and claimed the final medal of the weekend for Woking, with Gold in the 200m Breastroke.

Reflecting on the weekend as a whole, Hodgson said: “We saw a great set of performances at Nationals, providing a good base for the final training block into the World Aquatics Masters Championships in Japan this summer.”

Congratulations to all swimmers who took part and huge thanks to all of the coaching team for their support this past year and wish all the swimmers the best of luck in the Masters County Championships on 24th June 2023!

 A fantastic weekend of racing all around!