Perth 2008 - Full Report

The World Masters swimming championships, held in Perth Western Australia from the 18th to the 25th of April, was a fantastic event and Northgate’s own Lucy Gould and Nick Thacker were there and did the club proud.

Nick kicked off on day one (Friday 18th) with a finalists medal in the 800 Free in a time of 9:54.63 giving him 10th place in his age group. He was also the second British swimmer in this event. Nick swam again on Sunday in the 200 Free finishing in 15th place and followed that with a second finalists medal in the 400 IM. This time Nick was the only British swimmer in the event and finished 8th overall in a time of 5:33.02. After two rest days Nick swam the race of his life in the 200 Butterfly to finish 3rd in this world championships in a time of 2:28. The following day, Thursday, Nick finished in 11th place in the 400 Free. Although tired from the fly the day before he was pleased with this result. The final day was the 3 km open water swim in the Perth river. Despite a jelly fish landing on Nicks head he managed to survive the ordeal and finish a very creditable 15th place.

Lucy started her campaign on Saturday with a good swim in the 100 Free getting her 23rd overall and 2nd British swimmer home. On Sunday Lucy swam the 50 Fly and performed well to finish 30th in a time of 34:56. Monday was the day for Lucy's swim in the 50 Free where she was the 22nd fastest in the world and first British swimmer in a personal best time of 30.68. After a rest day on Tuesday, Lucy swam a very good race to finish 11th and first British swimmer in the 100 Back. She missed out on a finalists medal by just 3 hundredths of a second. This was a very high standard race as you would expect in a World Championships, the Japanese swimmer Ohashi won the event, narrowly missing a world record by just 0.01 seconds. Lucy left the best until last though when in her final event on Thursday, the 50 Back, she went all out and did a season best PB and finished in 10th place, picking up a finalists medal on the way.

It was overall a fantastic performance from both swimmers and Northgate Swimming Club were very proud to have them represent the club in this world championship event.