FOLLOWING an intensive month of training and feeling a little fitter Crediton Swimming Club’s Darren Beer, along with Matt Hockin, was off to Gloucester for their annual Masters Open Meet which took place in April.

This is a well-attended meet with nearly 200 swimmers but Matt and Darren still managed to win four medals in their respective age groups from the three swims they each swam.

Matt swam a strong 50m butterfly and Darren swam his best 100m individual medley for 12 months.

Darren also wanted to give the 400m individual medley another go in preparation for the World Masters Championships, swimming four seconds quicker than last year in a new South West record.

Unfortunately, there was someone else in his age group that swam quicker.

Next up on Saturday, May 6 was a shorter drive down to Bodmin for the Cornish Masters Meet.

Darren Beer and Sara Rolle both swam the same 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medleys with Darren swimming a South West record in his age group in the breaststroke event and Sara swimming a five second personal best in the individual medley.

Darren also wanted to swim another event at the World Masters Championships, the 100m breaststroke, which was a two-second improvement on his last swim and now only a second off of his personal best.

Darren and Sara ended up winning five medals between them, so a great day of swimming was had.

It is now only three months before the Worlds, including two months of intensive training and a time to taper.

There was also a chance to meet with other local swimmers at the South West Masters Swimming Development day in June to focus on training.

Crediton Festival Gala

Crediton’s younger swimmers have been very busy in the pool also. As part of the Crediton Festival, on June 10, an inter club swimming gala was held at Lords Meadow Leisure Centre between Crediton, Honiton and Okehampton swimming clubs.

Crediton were victorious winning the competition by one point from Honiton with Okehampton bringing up the rear.