THE Commonwealth Games may be over for another four years but in the Blue Mountains, a team of four masters swimmers could teach the elite athletes a thing or two about a winning attitude.
With a combined age of 321, Liz Wallis (91), Kay Burton, (79) Sue Wiles (78) and Nerida Murray (73) recently took to the blocks at Homebush Bay in the Masters Swimming NSW long course championships, where they broke the 10-year-old state womens' 4x50m freestyle record in the 320-359 combined age group by a phenomenal 33 seconds. And they broke the national record by 16 seconds.
Not resting on their laurels, the next day the fearsome four, members of the Blue Mountains Phoenix Adult Swimming Club, broke another state and national record by 36 seconds in the 4x50m medley.
Each performance would have placed them first in the last published world top 10 for their class, which augurs well for the 2018 rankings, which come out at the end of the year.
Kay and Nerida have been successful competitive swimmers since they were young and have been masters swimmers for more than 20 years.
Liz has been a competitive swimmer all her life and has set individual state, national and world records over many age groups.
Sue took up pool and ocean swimming in her early 60s. She is now the holder of 12 Cole Classic Plates for her ocean water swims.
Nerida credits the sport with keeping her fit and says being a member of the swimming club has meant she's met some really nice people and had some lovely trips to competitions over the years.
- To learn more about masters swimming, (02) 8736-1232 or mastersswimmingnsw.org.au
