Woking Masters Spectacular Golden Glory at World Championships in Japan

Woking Masters Spectacular Golden Glory at  World Championships in Japan

Five Woking Masters swimmers travelled to Japan to represent Great Britain at The 19th Fina World Masters Championships, held from 2-11 August 2023.

The event, which featured artistic swimming, diving, open water swimming, pool swimming and water polo took place in  three cities; Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, with the swimming events held in Fukuoka City at the Marina Messe and  Fukuoka Nishi swimming  centres directly following the Fina World Championships.

Over 10,000 athletes from 100 nations took  part in this event, delayed by 12 months  due to on-going concerns around the Covid-19 pandemic. The swimming event saw the best of the World's Masters swimmers compete together with the unknown Japanese swimmers dominating the starting lists.

The swimming proved to be the fastest meet in Masters' history, demonstrating the World talent at the Championships.  There were 33 World Records broken, tying the all-time record for the most broken in one championship meet, set previously in Riccione, Italy in 2012, and 132 new Championship Records set! This proved to be a   very fast meet!

Spurred on by  the fabulous success of the GB team at World Masters, the Woking team of Michelle Ware, Jennie Clarke , Jerry O’Riordan, MIchael Hodgson and David Bryant were simply outstanding in their swimming results racking up a phenomenal number of PBs, medals, Championship Records and GB, European and World Records!

Michelle Ware (50-54 age category)

Michelle was simply outstanding in her medal tally, bringing home individual 4 Gold and 1 Silver medals, two British Records  and a Championship Record to add to the glory. It took an ex-Olympic Champion, Australian Susan O’Neill, to pip Michelle to the Gold medal in the 50m Fly event:

• GOLD in 100m Free in NEW BRITISH RECORD
• GOLD in 100m Fly in NEW BRITISH RECORD
• GOLD in 50m Free
• GOLD in 50m Back in a CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD 
• SILVER in 50m Fly –in a time of 29.60, only  beaten by former Olympic Champion Australian Susan O’Neill

Mike Hodgson (55-59 age Category)

Mike Hodgson was equally outstanding in his World Results, finishing with 4 individual Gold and one Bronze and 4 British Records, 2 European and one Championship Record

• GOLD in 100m Breast in NEW BRITISH RECORD
• GOLD in 50m Free in NEW EUROPEAN & BRITISH RECORD
• GOLD in 50m Breast in a NEW BRITISH RECORD
• GOLD in 50m Fly in a new CHAMPIONSHIP, EUROPEAN & BRITISH RECORD 0f 26.86s
• BRONZE in 50m Back

David Bryant (60-64 age category)

David brought home 4 individual medals in his age category with two Silver (and a British Record)  and two Bronze Medals, narrowly missing out on a full sweep in the 4^th place finish in 200IM

• SILVER in 50m Breast
• SILVER in 400IM in NEW BRITISH RECORD
• BRONZE in 100m Breast
• BRONZE in 200m Breast  
• 4^th in 200IM

Jen Clarke (35-39 age category)

Jen managed a fabulous top 8 finish in all of her swims, narrowly missing out on a medal in 200m Back with a 4^th place finish but rewarded with a Bronze in the gruelling 400m Free event.  A super set of results in this competitive category.

• BRONZE in 400m Free  
• 4^th in 200m Back
• 6^th in 200m Breast
• 6^th in 200m Free
• 8^th in 100m Breast

Jerry O’Riordan (45-49 age Category)

Some great results also from Jerry in his individual swims – a great achievement to be in the top 20 in the world in this highly competitive category:

• 17^th in 100m Free
• 19^th  in 50m Fly
• 20^th in 50m Free
• 24^th in 50m Breast

Golden Relay Success

The impressive Woking quartet of Jen Clarke, Michelle Ware, Mike Hodgson and David Bryant proved to be unbeaten on the world stage in both the 4 x 50m Mixed Medley Relay AND 4 x 50m Free relay in the 200-239 combined years Category bringing home GOLD in both events.

The 4 x 50m Free relay saw Hodgson give the team a cracking start with a lead leg of 25.12 sec, lowering his European record from the previous day, followed by Clarke and Ware in times of 28.58 and 27.52, before Bryant brought home the Gold with his final leg of 27.81sec.

The 4 x 50m Medley saw Ware produce an impressive Backstroke leg of 31.96s, with Bryant (on Breast) and Hodgson (on fly) hand over to Clarke to bring home the second relay GOLD and just outside their own World Record.

Michelle, just off the plane from Japan, shared ‘World Champs did not disappoint. The Woking team did amazingly well, winning lots of medals, setting new records and Personal Best times. One of personal highlights was racing ex-Olympian Susie O’Neil in the 50m Fly.  It was a close race and for a moment I think I had her worried! I would like to thank the coaches and the club for their continued support of this growing Masters squad’

Mike, still recovering in Japan states ‘ The relays are always a lot of fun and a special day with a superb atmosphere. We were only ranked second in both relays to a very strong Japanese team going into the races, so we all needed to perform at our best to take both Golds.’  Mike goes on to share, ‘ On an individual basis, I had my best ever haul at a World Championships, breaking a number of European and GB records in the process. It’s a great feeling when all the training we oput in turns into success at the main events of the year’.

Masters Coach Seb Leather shared ‘I am incredibly proud of what this group has achieved at the World Championships. The squad were dominant at County and even National level this year but then to perform at this level against the best in the World truly shows the talent we have at Woking’. ‘Indeed, it is impressive what the whole squad has achieved in the time they have been at Woking, both in swimming, open water swimming and triathlons, and beyond!’.

Congratulations to all the Woking swimmers and to Seb, Mark, Michael and James for their coaching support throughout the year. 

What a truly incredible set of results on this international stage! The club is incredibly proud of the whole Masters Squad. Their dedication to the sport and the club is simply outstanding and a fabulous example to the age group swimmers as to where swimming can take you in years to come!