Albyns swimmers performed well at the Essex Masters Championships, by bringing back a weighty 27 gold, 12 silver and five bronze medals.

There were fine individual performances while the team effort was outstanding, and Albyns won five out of the seven team races entered.

The results, in group order were:- Group C: Sandra Rogers romped home with golds in the 100m butterfly, 200m and 400m freestyle respectively.

Kim Sinclair, in her first major masters event, gained silver in both the 50m and 400m freestyle.

Group D: Steve Pavitt swam a brilliant 400m free in an excellent time to win gold and another well deserved gold in the 100m butterfly, plus bronze in the 200m freestyle.

Group F: Val Hoffman won gold in the 50m breaststroke; silver in both the 100 IM and 100m freestyle; bronze in the 50m backstroke and was a runner-up on points for the top individual lady award.

Jill Whyman, Ladies Captain, won both the 50m and 100m backstroke. Club president, Tom Hardwick, won silver in the 400m freestyle and fourth place in a fast 50 freestyle.

Group G: John Limmer, maintaining good times, won the 100m breaststroke; silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in 50m backstroke.

Jeff Whyman, sprinted to gold in both the 50m butterfly and the 100m IM, and silver in the 50m freestyle.

Mike Giles won gold in the 50m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

Group H: Sybil Warn's hat-trick was six golds for 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly, respectively.

Group J: Bob Carter won silver in the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 100m IM and 50m breaststroke and bronze in 50m freestyle.

Group L: Daphne Gilbert won gold in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle.

The ladies team (Sybil Warn, Val Hoffmann , Jill Whyman and Daphne Gilbert) won their freestyle races with seconds to spare.

The mens team (Steve Pavitt, Tom Hardwick, John Limmer, Jeff Whyman, Mike Giles and Bob Carter) were strengthened by the addition of John Barratt and Dave Pettengell.

Dave not only runs the Brentwood Centre training sessions but is also a good swimmer, and the teams won two freestyle and one medley race, and were second in another medley.

It was a good result for the club, especially as some of their swimmers in the younger age groups were unable to compete.

But the great joy of masters swimming is that all age groups have equal chances of gaining medals and often beat younger contestants!

Albyns next big event will be at Barnet Copthall on July 23/24 for the distance championships and anyone interested in joining the club is asked to telephone Daphne Gilbert on 01277 372926 for details.

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