The PSUK Swimming Team travelled to Sheffield to compete in the Masters National Championships, a well-established short course event, known as being the pinnacle of the short course swimming calendar. The event is held in the famous Ponds Forge International Sports Centre which hosts an Olympic sized swimming pool. Competitors travel from all over the UK to compete in this 3 day event.
PSUK fielded a strong team of 18 swimmers; many of these swimmers were representing GB Police for the first time.
Nigel GASKIN (West Mids) was first in the water, competing in event number 1 of the championships, the mixed 1500m freestyle, a gruelling 60 lengths of the pool. Nigel finished 6th in his 40-44 age group.
It didn't take long for the medals to start rolling in. In event 2, Sean KELLY (Met), Callie-Ann WARRINGTON (Kent), Aimee RAMM (Leic) and Nigel GASKIN took silver in the Mixed 4 x 100 FC relay (72+).
John MOLYNEAUX (Hampshire) had an excellent weekend, taking home 6 individual medals. He secured a 2nd in the Mens 50m Backstroke, 2nd Mens 100m Backstroke, 1st Mens 200m Backstroke, 1st Mens 100IM, 1st Mens 200IM and a 1st in the Mens 400m IM.
Aimee RAMM also had a very good weekend of swimming. In her individual events she also secured medals. Aimee came 4th in the Womens 50m FC (35-39), 3rd Womens 100m FC, 2nd Womens 50m Backstroke, 4th Womens 50m Butterfly and a 4th in the Womens 100m Butterfly.
Sally BLICK (Sussex), who had recently come back from injury, swam in 6 individual events throughout the weekend. Sally secured herself three 4th positions, a 5th, 6th and an 8th.
Lucy HALL (Met) also had a fabulous weekend of swimming. Lucy swam 6 individual events and took gold in the Womens 200m Breastroke (35-39).
Claire THORN (West Mids) didn't disappoint either. Claire raced in 4 individual events. Claire came 3rd in the Womens 200 FC (45-49), 2nd Womens 400 FC, 5th Womens 100m Breastroke and a 2nd in the Womens 200m Breastroke.
Sarah HEMPENSTALL (Surrey) always loving a challenge raced a very difficult event, the 400IM. This consists of 100m of each stoke, Fly, Back, Breast and Frontcrawl. Sarah placed 4th (40-44) in this event.
Alex MASON (Herts) took on 5 individual events over the weekend. Alex managed to podium three times, securing himself 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
All team members produced amazing individual swims throughout the whole weekend, in fact the swimmers notched up 71 individual races between themselves, with many members swimming personal best times in their events. On top of that the swimmers dug deep and raced in a further 15 relay events.
The team won medals of all colours and also had 7 races where the swimmers finished in the top 10 of their age groups.
Sarah, Sally, Aimee and Claire
Gold medal in the Womens Open 400m Medley Team
Sophie PYATT / Lucy HALL / Jemma BINGHAM / Callie-Ann WARRINGTON
Gold medal in the Womens Open 400m Freestyle Team
Aimee RAMM / Claire THORN / Sarah HEMPENSTALL / Sally BLICK
Gold medal in the Mens/Womens Open 200m Free.Team
Callie-Ann WARRINGTON / Aimee RAMM / John WILLIAMS / Alex MASON
Silver medal in the Womens Open 200m Freestyle Team
Aimee RAMM / Claire THORN / Sally BLICK / Sarah HEMPENSTALL
Silver medal in the Womens Open 200m Medley Team
Sally BLICK / Claire THORN / Aimee RAMM / Sarah HEMPENSTALL
Bronze medal in the Mens/Womens Open 400m Medley Team
John WILLIAMS / Claire THORN / Sarah HEMPENSTALL / Nigel GASKIN
Bronze medal in the Mens Open 200m Medley Team
John MOLYNEAUX / Alex MASON / Samuel HOBBINS / Sean KELLY
At this year's event Swim England announced that Otter Swimming Club had donated a Top Club Trophy – The Otter 150 Cup (1869 – 2019). Teams were awarded points for individual and team swims. Out of the 298 teams competing GB Police finished in 12th position.
GB Police finished 12th in the Top Club award.
The PSUK team will be competing again in the New Year, taking a small team of swimmers to the South East Long Course Masters Event, K2 – Crawley, 18th – 19th January 2020.
