Otters compete for Middlesex

14 Otters were selected to compete for Middlesex at the annual inter counties competition on 15 December. We traipsed to Barnet to join our team mates from Teddington, Barnet Copthall and beyond, to take on teams from six other counties in the South East region. A gruelling lactate session of multiple 50m sprints followed (with swimmers competing in 18+, and then 10 year age bands from 25+), with some of us lucky enough to compete in multiple age groups and in the 12x25m squadron at the end.

This year we saved our best results until last and it was only with the final race that we over took leaders, Hampshire, to win the trophy. It was a fantastic team effort by all involved, with swimmers willingly stepping up to swim their unfavoured strokes so we gained valuable points. Thanks to Aeron Brown, Catherine Delmont, Gina Hobson, Laure Kearns, Kim Liu, Derek Parr, Olivia Reynolds, Wade Rimbach, Dave Roberts, Michelle Senecal, Ben Thomas, Neal Thompson, Dave Warren and Oli Wilson and here's to retaining the trophy next year!

Middlesex 2015 Inter counties team

OTTERS ROAM FREELY AT LA SANTA, LANZAROTE

Otter returned to La Santa in September 2015 for the annual training camp. Nearly 40 club members made the trek to sunny Lanzarote for a week’s worth of training and sunbathing in the work hard/play hard Otter tradition.

As always, plenty of other sports were on offer, with Otters excelling in pretty much everything they took up, especially on the tennis courts and the duathlon and triathlon events. With most days having a morning and afternoon session at two hours a piece, many also spent their free time sunning themselves on deck, enjoying one of La Santa’s many restaurants, or cooling off in their flat. All were pleased that Coach Steve made the trip again and provided everyone with challenging sets and plenty of useful, welcome advice.

On the Wednesday night the locals and tourists in Puerto del Carmen were treated to the Otters donning the red and white stripes of Where's Wally, ensuring that anyone’s hopes for a quiet candlelit dinner and nightcap were duly shattered. 

Many Otters competing at Nationals later in the year took advantage of the week at La Santa to peak before a well deserved taper, with others carrying on with the normal training schedule on their return to the UK. Chris Sutton (aka Ginger Babies) did an unbelievable job in organising the trip and making sure that the week ran smoothly for everyone. Thanks Babies!

OTTER DOMINANT AT SHORT COURSE NATIONALS IN SHEFFIELD

Congratulations to all the Otters who swam at the ASA National Masters Short Course Championships in Sheffield last weekend. There were many fantastic Otter performances with tonnes of medals, PBs, and even a few first competitive master swims. Huge thank you to our wonderful Otter coaches Steve & Aeron.  Full recap of the meet to come. In the meantime all results from the meet can be seen here and a list of Otter results can be found here. 

Some of the Otter Short Course team. 

Otter 1/4 Mile

Otter's ventured to Parliament Hill Lido for the annual 1/4 mile race on Saturday 15 August, the last open water event of the clubs season.

After a fresh dip, swimmers enjoyed a friendly match of water polo, with bragging rights to boot! Otter black came out victorious on the day, unfortunately there were no black eyes to report. In true Otter style, festivities continued into the evening.

We had another great turn up at this event, which is a nice taste of “open water”swimming & Water Polo for beginners and masters alike. Congratulations to our 2015 winner, James Third (well done Foxcatcher!) Honourable mentions to our podium finishers Pip Bennett in second and Chris Sutton in third - a tightly fought final turn proved the difference on the day. With Emma Skhurka the best placed lady in the handicap.

Massive thank you to Parliament Hill Lido for hosting us again, and to Shurks & Traey Allen for organizing the event. Brilliant job ladies! 

World Masters Swimming Championships 2015 Kazan, Russia

In an exciting move and for the very first time, FINA arranged for the World Masters Championships 2015 to take place at the same venue as the full World Championships with some overlap of events.  Hence, Masters athletes who went out early to prepare for the open water or long distance pool swimming were able to gain some inspiration by watching the elite athletes compete on the world stage.

This year, two Otters competed at the event - Wade Rimbach and Pip Bennett. The latter arrived very early in Kazan as he had the open water event held on a similar, albeit shorter, course as the elite swimmers. Pip finished 5th in the 30-34 age group winning a sprint finish over an Argentinian athlete by a mere 0.1 seconds. He was very pleased with this result as last year he finished 12th.

Wade (also 30-34) arrived a few days later and the two of them set out to compete in the fantastic ‘Aquatics Palace’ facility. This held two 50m pools, a diving pit and superb results systems - evidence that being linked to the main championships was beneficial. Numbers at this event were lower than the last two editions in Montreal and Riccione, but at the sharp end of the competition the standard was exactly as expected at the World Championships level. The lower numbers meant that warming up for swimming events was much easier and less like the people-soup that has been a feature of some competitions.

Otter Handicap Dates

The Otter handicap competition continues in the pool this week with the 150 Free. The dates for the remainder of the handicap event are provisionally as below, each to be held during a Thursday QMSC session as above, where there are two events in the same evening this will obviously take slightly longer.

Thu 20 Aug 2015: 150 Free

Thu 24 Sep 2015: 200 Free

Thu 15 Oct 2015: 100 Free

Thu 19 Nov 2015: 125 Free & Vets 50 Free

Thu 17 Dec 2015: 50 Free & 400 IM

Otters Triumphant at Open Water Nationals

On August 2nd, the Otters went to a sunny and blustery Rother Valley Country Park near Sheffield for the ASA Open Water National Championships. It is a pleasing indicator about the way the sport is going that there needed to be two waves in the Men's 3km race to accommodate all the entries. Despite the warm water and hints of sun through threathening clouds one half of the course was quite taxing with rough water blown up by the wind.

Not to be deterred, Pip Bennett (30-34) and Dan Bullock (45-49) went on to become National Champions in their age groups and also were 2nd and 4th overall, only beaten by a 20 year old who had recently represented the country. In the women's race the weather continued to deteriorate but Jess Trevellick (25-29) and Michelle Senecal dealt with the conditions well to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively in their own age-groups.

Next year we aim to take a bigger team and bring even more medals home.

The Annual Otter Half-Mile open water handicap

The Otter Half-Mile open water handicap was held yesterday evening at Henley Sailing Club. The Sailing Club proved excellent hosts as usual providing boats and safety crew along with a wonderful barbeque and soup ready for the swimmers as soon as they got out the water. The water itself was possibly a steaming 20 degrees so lovely to swim in and the warm setting sun made for a perfect evening on the river side. Tremendous thanks to Roger Sharply for organising this event again.

There was a good turn out with 30 swimmers plus many guests joining for the barbeque. It was very good to see some water polo ladies and men at this combined club event. The race itselfwas slightly slower than recent years with very little current assistance resulting in a longer timed race which allowed some of the later starters to catch up the earlier swimmers, the top three all started towards the end of the start list, about four minutes after the first swimmer.

Well done in particular to the winner, Nico Barber. The top three were: 1. Nico Barber (start time 3:45), finish time 14:27,  Pip Bennett (4:15), 14:38, and Lex Higlett (4:00), 14:41.

Otter win London League

Otter have won the Division 1 of the London League after finishing the season undefeated. The win was a great squad effort with 16 different players from Otter, Lutra & the U/17 Otter National Age Group team combining over 3 weekends to take out the title. 

Despite the number of players & people playing together for the first time Otter were consistent throughout. Beating West London Penguin 7-0 & 7-1. Mid Sussex Marlins 6-2 & 6-1. Beckenham 8-3 & 8-0. And Chelmsford 12-2. 

Otter Club Championship

The Otter Club Championship 400 Free & 100IM races were held during training Thursday night at QMSC.

Thanks to everyone who took part & helped time.

400 Free Results - Men's: 1st Dave Warren (4:32), 2nd Josh Sambrook-Smith (4:41) 3rd Craid Gillepsie (4:45). Women's: 1st Lex Higlett (4:55), 2nd Helen Prentice (5:12), 3rd Jess Trevellick (5:24).

100IM Results - Men's 1st Dave Warren (1.04), 2nd Wade Rimbach (1.06), 3rd Craig Gillepsie (1.08). Women's: 1st Lex Higlett (1.14), Helen Prentice (1.17), 3rd Emma Shkurka (1.17) 

The next Club Championships will be the 200IM & 100 Free on 30th July. 50Free, 100Bk & 50 Fly will be on October 29th & the 100Br & 100Fly will take place on November 5th.