On 23rd, 24th and 25th October seven Exmouth masters swimmers attended the annual national masters’ short course championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. The team, accompanied by masters coach Bob Clarke, were Adele Parham, Tara Dudley, Bill letch, Jamie page, Peter Gilpin, Philippa O Grady, and Robert Macey.  Over the 3 days there were some excellent results with the team winning eleven medals, including seven gold and four silver, and four British records.

Bill Letch began the meet for the Exmouth team with a British Record and gold medal in the 200m Individual Medley in 3:17.55.  Over the weekend Bill won a further four gold medals, one silver, and set another three British records; 1:28.95 in the 100m Butterfly,  and beating his own records in the 50m Butterfly (36.64) and 50m Freestyle (31.72).

Phillippa O’Grady was hot on Bill’s heels in the medal table and didn’t keep the team waiting for their second medal winning silver in the 200m Individual Medley in her age group.  Phillippa also won silvers in the 100m Butterfly and 400m Individual Medley and a gold in the 200m Butterfly.

The Exmouth team also won a gold in the 120+ years 4x200m Freestyle mixed relay where teammates Jamie Page, Adele Parham, Robert Macey, and Tara Dudley swam to a time of 9:42.25.

As well as the medal winning performances there were other notable performances by every member of the team.  Adele Parham had three top ten finishes in the 200m Individual Medley, 400m Individual Medley, and 400m Freestyle.  Jamie Page had top ten finishes in the 100m and 50m Breaststroke.  Peter Gilpin finished in the top ten in the 50m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle.  Robert Macey also had a top ten position in the 50m Backstroke.

Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society Masters swimmer Bill Letch has made a record breaking return after taking a break from competitions.

Making his return at the Devon ASA Masters and Seniors competition in Tiverton on Sunday 13th September Bill focused on the sprint events and beat swimmers many years his junior to set new British Records in the 75-79 age group.

The records in the 50m Butterfly and the 50m Freestyle beat records that were set 18 years ago my former Olympic swimmer Jack Hale and have recently been ratified by British Swimming.

Over the weekend of Friday 14th to Sunday 16th June swimmers from Exmouth swimming and Life Saving Society attended the British Gas Masters and Senior Age Group Championships at The Life Centre, Plymouth.

A small squad of eight swimmers represented Exmouth over the weekend and put in a number of medal winning performances with every swimmer winning at least one medal. The Ladies team was made up of Tara Dudley, Heidi Hunt, Philippa O'Grady, and Adele Parham.  The men were Warren Barrett, Ross Donaldson, Peter Gilpin, and Bryan White.

The team won a total of 16 medals with Heidi Hunt winning bronze in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke and gold in the 50m Backstroke.  Philippa O'Grady won bronze in the 100m butterfly and silvers in the 200m butterfly and 200m IM.  Adele Parham won bronze in the 400m IM and silver in the 1500m freestyle.  Tara Dudley then joined the winning trio to form a 160+ relay team with the team taking fourth place in the 4x50m Freestyle relay and a bronze medal in the medley relay.

The Exmouth men also contributed with medal winning performances. Warren Barrett won silver in the 50m butterfly in his first competition for Exmouth.  Ross Donaldson won bronze in the 200m backstroke whilst Peter Gilpin won bronze in the 100m backstroke.  Bryan White also medalled in both IMs with silver in the 200m and bronze in the 400m event.

Exmouth’s Men’s Decathlon team led the nationwide decathlon competition going into the final Masters event of the year.  They finally finished 2nd in the UK just missing out to Otter SC for the cash prize. The final points were; Otter SC 1st with 20267 points, 2nd Exmouth Masters on 19949 points & in 3rd place came Gloucester Masters on 19826 points.

The decathlon competition compares the times achieved with the world record for that event with times adjusted to take into consideration the swimmer’s age.  Points are then awarded for each swim and a swimmer’s final points tally totals the swimmer’s best swim in 8 categories and their next best two swims.  The team event then adds up the highest scoring four swimmers from each club to determine the team’s overall score.  Exmouth’s top four swimmers were Bill Letch, Ross Szender, Olly White and Richard Lander.

Masters Coach Bob Clarke commented on the teams improving performance over the last two years, “Fourth last year, second this year can’t wait for next year!!” with the clear aim of the team being to improve further and win the event in 2013.

Exmouth world champion Bill Letch, as well as being the Exmouth men’s team’s top scorer also place third in the individual competition with 6740 points, only missing out on first place by a couple hundred points.

Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society’s Masters Squad were in action at the weekend when they swam in the Royal Navy Masters Meet held at Millfield.  The Exmouth team successfully defended their top visiting team trophy for the fourth consecutive year but faced tough competition from local Somerset team Wincanton with the team competition decided by the final relay races.

Caroline Ball, Cameron-Carpenter-Warren, Yvonne Carpenter-Warren, Heather Fell, Nikki Fraser, Neville King, Rich Lander, Sam Lander, Ian Lang, Bill Letch, Christa Page, Ross Szender, Adam Tapp, Bryan White, and Olly White were the swimmers who made the journey accompanied by Masters Coach Bob Clarke.

Exmouth swimmers had a number of strong individual swims throughout the day with many swimming in numerous events to boost the number of points they earnt for the team.  In the relay events Exmouth swimmers continued to earn valuable points; the Men’s 160+ yrs 4x50m Medley team of White, White, Letch and King, and Ladies’ 72-99yrs 4x50 Medley team of Ball, Page, Fell and Fraser winning their relays and the Men’s 72-99yrs 4x50m Medley Relay team of Lander, Lang, Tapp and Lander earning silver in the morning.  In the afternoon the same Men’s 160+ and Ladies’ 72-99yrs again won their freestyle relays whilst Carpenter-Warren, Rich Lander, Tapp and Szender claimed silver.

Over the weekend of Friday 26th to Sunday 28th October swimmers from Exmouth swimming and Life Saving Society attended the British Gas ASA National Masters and Senior Age Group Championships at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield.

The team included Sam Lander, Bryan White, Bill Letch, Olly White, Jamie Page, Jonathan Hawkins, Richard Lander, Adam Tapp, Robert Macey, Tara Dudley, Yvonne Carpenter-Warren, Christa Page, Neville King, Ross Szender, Ian Lang, coach Bob Clarke, Cameron Carpenter-Warren, Ross Donaldson, Caroline Ball, Adele Parham, and Philippa O’Grady. The team were supported by a number of supporters and Exmouth swimmer Peter Gilpin was also competing, although for Truro, over the weekend.

Adele Parham was the first Exmouth swimmer to race, competing in the 1500m freestyle and winning a bronze medal in the 60 length race.  There were a number of other impressive swims over the weekend with Bill Letch, in his first race, breaking his own 200m IM British record in the 70-74 years age group.  Bill also went on to win gold in the 100m butterfly, bronze in the 50m freestyle, and silver in the 100m freestyle.  Exmouth’s 100+ years men’s 4x100m Medley team of Rich Lander, Jonathan Hawkins, Adam Tapp, and Sam Lander also won gold.  In the 4x200m freestyle relay the Exmouth team of Ross Donaldson, Christa Page, Adele Parham, and Bill Letch combined to take a bronze medal in the 200+ age group.  Adele Parham and Philippa O’Grady also earning silvers in the 200m butterfly in their respective age groups.  Caroline Ball won the final Exmouth medal of the weekend with a bronze in the 50m Backstroke.

There were other impressive swims from Exmouth swimmers including those from 2012 channel swimmers Tara Dudley and Jamie Page who were both returning to pool competition having spent the year training for their respective channel swims over the summer.   Tara Dudley came 4th in her age group for the 4x100m IM in her first attempt at racing the event.  Neville King also had another impressive meet particularly impressing Coach Bob Clarke over the middle and long distance events with his consistent split times.  Olly white and Ross Szender were both swimming events over the weekend to improve their points totals in the ASA’s annual decathlon event and to contribute to the position of Exmouth men’s team in the team event.  Both achieved this with Szender improving in some events whilst completing his 10 events and White improving his times and points value in every event he competed in over the weekend.  Christa Page also consistently performed with multiple top 10 finishes over the weekend with a number of swims gaining a mention in Coach Bob Clarke’s shortlist of swim of the weekend.  However the award for swim of the nationals was eventually awarded to Jamie Page for his 100m Freestyle where he was close to breaking a minute; impressing the team with his speed over the sprint distances having spent the year training to swim the channel.

Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society swimmer Bill Letch has been voted Devon County ASA’s swimmer of the year for 2011.

Letch competes in Masters Competitions and swims in the 70-75years age group.  He holds numerous British ad European records in Freestyle, Butterfly and IM events.  Letch was the first British swimmer over 70 to break the 30 second barrier for 50m freestyle and won two gold, two silver and a bronze medal at last year’s Masters World Championships in Sweden.  Bill has continued the form he showed at last year’s World Championships throughout the year, winning his age group competition at the Royal Navy Masters Meet back in March before travelling to Sheffield a few weeks ago to compete in the ASA British Gas National Masters Championships; returning from Sheffield with gold for the 200m IM, 100m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, silver in the 50m Freestyle and 100m IM and a Bronze in the 50m Breaststroke (his least favourite stroke).

Letch said of the award:

Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society swimmer Bill Letch competed in the FINA World Masters Championships in Sweden last week.  Bill already held a number of British and European records for the 70-74 years age group before competing at the championships and broke a number of other records during the competition.

Bill came away from the meet with five medals; two gold, two silver, and a bronze.  Bill won the world championship in the 100metre freestyle in a time of 1.08.62.  He also claimed gold in the 50 metres freestyle in 31.16.  Bill’s preferred stroke is Butterfly and in the three Butterfly distances (200, 100 and 50 metres) he added two silver and one bronze medals respectively.

Exmouth Swimming and Life Saving Society would like to congratulate Bill on some world class performances over the week of competition.