The Arena European Masters Championships 2016 was held May 25-29 in the iconic London Aquatics Centre at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with swimmers, it was a historic first as the Masters event was held together with the elite LEN European Swimming, Diving and Synchronised Swimming Championships to form the LEN European Aquatics championships 2016.
For the first time in three years athletes across multiple age groups from 25 to over 100 got the opportunity to compete for medals and records straight after Europe’s elite, most of which will then head to Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games.
The LEN European Masters Championships was last held in Eindhoven in 2013 while the last time the event was staged in the UK was in 1991 in Coventry. The inauguration of the Championships came in 1987 in Blackpool. Fortunately or unfortunately the games were highly oversubscribed and competitors were limited to only 3 events. 5 Guernsey Swimming Club swimmers travelled over to London to compete at this iconic event.
30 year old Island Games swimmer Ben Lowndes place 5th out of 80 in the 30-34 age group in a time of 59.68 for the 100m butterfly, 22nd out of 261 in the 100m freestyle 56.69 and 6th in the 200m butterfly in 2.19.75, 2nd highest British swimmer.
Claire Hyland 40-44 year age group 200m freestyle 2.33.70 31st overall or 15th British Lady in my age group, 100m freestyle 1.09.81 42nd overall or 17th British lady, 50m freestyle 31.85 36th overall or 15th British person. Claire said that it was a great experience and a fabulous pool, but the days were long and far too many people. They started blowing the first whistle before the swimmers had actually finished the race before! So everything went very fast.
Claire Le Prevost 25-29 age group 100 breaststroke 1.38.69, 400m freestyle 5.53.35 and the 200m freestyle 2.46.00. Claire was a little disappointed with her times as she did better in Crawley at the British Masters earlier in the year, but was please she attended the meet and to compete in the Olympic pool.
Paul Mason 45-49 year age group came 21st in the 800m freestyle in a time of 10.47.18, 71st in the 200m freestyle out of 116 swimmers in 2.28.70 and31st in the 400m freestyle 5.09.49. Being one of the oldest in his age group Paul will move up an to the 50-54 age group next year.
Pauline Hogg 55-59 age group swam the 50m backstroke in 42.79 coming 26th, 100 backstroke 1.33.50 (22nd) and the 200 backstroke in 3.24.27 finishing 26th overall in her age group. Although it was a great experience swimming at a high level masters meet with swimmers from all over the world. The days were long, men swam in one pool and the ladies in another pool, viewing and supporting team members was very difficult, and unfortunately our relay entry had got lost in the system so they could not swim it. But still it was a good meet and plenty of top quality swimming.