The Otter 2016 La Santa Training Camp

Otters, the time has come to put your name down for this year's edition of the Otter La Santa training camp. If you're interested in attending please email Foxcatcher / James / Third  james83rd@gmail.com by 15th February 2015. 

Dates: The 2016 camp will be held Saturday to Saturday, 10-17 September. This should be perfect timing for those competing at nationals in October.

The resort: The abilities of swimmers on the trip in previous years have ranged from Lane 1-2 swimmers through all the lanes. We have 4 hours of pool time a day (2x 2 hour sessions) with 4 lanes available to us. Steve provides us with a detail a training program for the week and helps to provide individual attention if wanted. All swimming is entirely optional if you wish miss a session and go to another class or just sit by the leisure pool no one is going to say anything, this is a holiday after all!

The price of the week entitles you to free use of the sports and leisure facilities at the resort, such as Tennis, Squash, Racket ball. Most classes, such as spin, ab attack and many different Yoga classes, are also included. The hire of equipment, and the majority of activities on the weekly program are also included.  You can get an idea of the classes and activates on offer @ http://www.clublasanta.co.uk/

Social: This is an extremely fun trip with lots of socialising as well as training! We arrange for a trip into Lanzarote for a night out (last year was a where’s Wally (or Waldo for those from the other side of the pond!) theme fancy dress). There is a big BBQ on the last night to celebrate finishing the week and a mid-week pasta night that is also very popular! It’s always a very friendly atmosphere with the chance to get to know people and make new friends!

Flights: Recommended flights are the Monarch flight from Gatwick flight. Leaves at 15:00 and arrives 19:15. Other possibilities are: EasyJet from Gatwick flight leaving at 16:35 and landing 20:50. Or those wishing to collect Avios can travel from Heathrow via Madrid with Iberia / BA. Leaves at 11:35 and lands at 17:35

Rooms: We always have a combination of couples and singles, so if you have a roommate preference, please let me know.

Coach: The cost for coaching staff to attend the camp will be be added to the quote from La Santa and distributed evenly among everyone going.

Late arrivals/Early departures: All rooms and prices will be for the entire week and we won't be able to discount the weekly rate for late arrivals or early departures. Rates are usually very reasonable and most are able to come for the whole week, so I hope this won't be an issue. If people want an idea on costs please email James / Third / Foxcatcher on the address below.

Deposit:  La Santa has been asked for a quote this publish deposit/payment amounts and deadlines when we have them. The deposit is non-refundable and usually due sometime in February so please try to be sufficiently sure that you are able to go.

This is a great week or training, fun & sun. So if you're interested in attending email  james83rd@gmail.com by 15th February 2015 to register your interest and book a spot on the trip. 

Entries for the British Masters and Senior Age Group Championships Open today

Entries for the British Masters and Senior Age Group Championships, one of the highlights of the 2016 National Masters calendar, open today at noon. Entires will be open until Wednesday 9th March; Midnight.  

To enter click on the following link: https://www.swimmingresults.org/events/bsmasters16/index.php

The event will take at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge from 1 - 3 April. Ahead of the 2016 LEN European Masters Championships in London, this event will give competitors in Sheffield the chance to swim their best times.

Please Note: It is anticipated that there will be a high number of entries this year. To address this there is a limit of six individual events per competitor. Should the meet or session still be oversubscribed, entries will be on a “First Come First Served” basis.  In such cases a refund will be given for those events the swimmer has been rejected.

Good luck Otters. 

View fullsize

Otter 4x100 Ladies free relay after breaking the British & European record @ British Masters in 2014. 

Upcoming competitions

It's 2016! If you're thinking about racing this year don't forget to check out the Otter swimming competitions page & the British Swimming website where you can find a list of all competitions that are available for entry.

There is already a contingent of Otters entered for the Bracknell and Swansea meets on 5 March, and we will also be hoping to send a large team to Long Course Nationals in Sheffield on 1 to 3 April. This will be excellent preparation for the European Masters championships taking part on 25 to 29 May so get involved. More details on the Europeans can be found here.

Happy Swimming.

Otter success at National Swimming Championships

The penultimate weekend of October saw a contingent of 42 Otters travel to Sheffield to take part in the National Short Course Championships. There were many excellent performances, and a full list can be found here.

It was great to see many new faces representing the club for the first time, including Catherine Demont and Jessica Safir who swam strongly in the sprint freestyle events. The club was also well represented in the youngest age group by Alex Fraser and Dontony Gill-Nasadi. Special mention also goes to Aeron Brown who managed to fit a number of speedy swims in between assisting Steve Bratt on the coaching side.
 
Many swimmers had very busy schedules indeed, including Nico Barber who swam all the freestyle events bar the 1500, picking up a silver in the 800m and a bronze in the 400m. Craig Gillespie showed his versatility by swimming a range of events in the extremely tough 25-29 year age group, picking up a bronze in the 200IM. Lex Higlett also had great freestyle swims in the women’s 30-34 year age group, including a gold in the 200 and a bronze in the 400.
 
Both Dave Warren and Gina Hobson came back with a haul of medals. Dave won 10 individual medals(!), including seven golds. Gina won nine individual medals, including an excellent gold in the 100 free.
 
In the older age groups we also did very well, in spite of not having some of the usual 50-60 year-olds. In the women’s events, Liz Shaw swam a PB in the 200 breast, and there were solid swims from Martha Dean and Lesley Davies. 
 
We were very strong in the 240+ relays with two golds and one bronze for the men, and a gold in the mixed 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays. In the men's 280+ relays we were virtually unassailable with three gold and two silver medals.
 
Individual male performances of note include Ted Evans, who swam in four events and won gold in all of them, just missing a couple of GB records. Roger Lloyd-Mostyn with a gold and three silvers out of five events, and Mike Wake's silver and four bronzes from six swims were also very impressive, especially since they are both at the top end of their age group. However, they were overshadowed by Derek Parr, who swam in three relays and nine individual events and managed not only to win six gold and three silver individual medals, but to take out the GB records in the 50 and 200 fly!
 
Well done everyone!
 

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