National Masters Open Water Championships

By Colin | 02/08/2015

ASA Masters National Open Water Championships –Rother Valley Country Park, August 2nd 2015

The annual National Championships were, as usual, held at the central location of Rother Valley Country Park near Sheffield.

This year there was a slight change to the event with the inclusion of an additional 1500m race for men and women in the morning and the traditional 3k race in the afternoon. This new distance was intended to compensate for the omission of the equivalent distance at this year’s long course Championships held at the Manchester Aquatics Centre in June (due to time constraints). Whilst the pool based long distance swimmers would probably dispute the equivalence of changing the format to an open water race, it certainly gave the outdoor racers some extra scope to compete, with many opting to swim both distances.

The morning’s events saw Brian Armstrong (Gloucester Masters) take his first national title with a win in the men’s 50-54yr 1500m race. Gloucestershire based swimmers were better represented in the afternoons 3k event. In the men’s 50-54yrs age group, Richard Searle (Stroud Masters) collected a well-deserved Bronze medal with Brian Armstrong (Gloucester Masters) and Mark Partridge (Stroud Masters) coming 4th and 6th respectively.

Jessica Woodisse (Stroud Masters), fresh from her category win in the Bosporus Swim, also excelled here, dominating her age group in the women’s 3k race and coming second overall behind a very talented youngster, Jennifer Tiiterington (22), who had also won the 1500m race earlier in the day.

1500mBrian Armstrong, Gloucester Masters
(men’s 50-54yr)		22:48.931st
3000mJessica Woodisse, Stroud Masters
(women’s 40-44yr)		42:17.41st
Richard Searle, Stroud Masters
(men’s 50-54yr)		47:02.13rd
Brian Armstrong, Gloucester Masters
(men’s 50-54yr)		48:34.14th
Mark Partridge, Stroud Masters
(men’s 50-54yr)		50:59.16th
Posted in 2015