Team Luton swimmers claim 11-medal haul at regional champs

Malcolm Barton made the most of his first meet in the 65 to 69 age group, winning all four of his events – doing the breaststroke double over 100m and 200m, and winning individual medley gold at 200m and 400m.

He also demolished the Bedfordshire records in all four events, while his breaststroke times of 1min 34.57secs and 3:23.74 lowered the East Region records by 6.55secs and 17.47secs, respectively.

Just for good measure his 100m butterfly split in the 400m IM was another county record for his age group.

Sam Bradley lowered his own 25 to 29 years county 200m backstroke record by 3.4secs to win in a time of 3min 02.04secs.

Competing in five events in a day, Sam also won 200m IM silver and finished fourth at 400m freestyle.

Laura Smith earned her first county masters record, clocking 39 seconds dead in the 25–29 years 50m breaststroke, lowering the previous mark by 1.39secs.

She followed this with fifth places in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

In the 18-24 age group, Alice Pinney won silver at 400m and 800m freestyle swims, came third over 200m, and was fifth in the 50m freestyle.

Jodie Armstrong claimed her first South East medal, with third place in the 35–39 years’ 100m butterfly, and missed bronze over 50m by just 0.7secs.

Kelly Cooke was just 0.21 seconds outside the medals in her 40–44 years’ 50m butterfly, but her time of 36.54secs took 1.71secs off the county record for age group.

It followed a county 100m freestyle record of 1min 10.06secs, a four-second improvement on the 2013 record for ninth place, with Michelle Neal 12th in a personal best long course time.