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LITTLEDOWN MASTER CLASS

The past few weeks have been some of the most eventful in the short history of Littledown Masters.

Building on the success of becoming Half Iron Man World Champion in December 2010, James Gilfillan will once again be heading to Florida in November this year after qualifying at the weekend for the Half-Iron Man World Championships in Clearwater. Gilfillan, 31, came 13th overall out of 1,200 competitors in the qualifying event in Belgium, and only weeks after he won his first British title with an impressive performance in the national event at Lake Bala, Wales. Completing the 2km swim, 80km bike ride and 20km run in 3hr 47mins 15secs, Gilfillan was one of only two of the 600 competitors to finish in under four hours.

This past week the Club also waved goodbye to Keith Mahon and Barbara Walton who fly out to compete in the Age Group Triathlon European Championships in Spain having qualified to represent Great Britain at both this event and at the Worlds' in Beijing in September via wins in major Sprint Triathlon qualifying events earlier in the year plus. Barbara (pictured right) also gained a medal for GB in last years World Championships in Budapest. Both qualified for the European Championships competing at Belvoir Castle earlier this month where Keith (50-54 age group) completed the 750m open water swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run in 1 hr 9mins 12secs and Barbara (60-64 age group) in 1 hr 29mins 55secs. 

And finally, Peter Kirk, 56, became a National Champion in his age group at the 2011 Masters Championships in Sheffield with a winning time of 2:27.7 in the 200m Freestyle. Back in the pool the next day, and having swum seven races in two days, he had to settle for silver in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 1:04.25, a mere nine tenths behind the winner!

 

Above: Littledown Masters' James Gilfillan crosses the finishing line at the Iron Man World Championships

WORLD CLASS IRON MAN

An impressive performance from Littledown Masters' James Gilfillan in the Florida sunshine earlier this month has resulted in the club celebrating its' first amateur Half Iron Man World Champion.

Finishing the half Iron Man course in a time of 3hrs 54mins, James completed a 1.2 mile swim in 24mins 44secs, a 56 mile bicycle race in 2hrs 6mins followed by a 13 mile run in 1hr 19mins. With 149 athletes competing in his age group (30-34yrs) James was some five minutes ahead of his nearest rival and also emerged as overall fastest from all age groups where a total of 1457 athletes started the course. 

A separate event for professional tri-athletes was held at the same time and James, who has a full time job in local government in Poole, would have finished 22nd in that competition. A truly phenomenal performance!

 

Masters Inter-County Championships 2010

British record holders Jean Howard-Jones and Nic Vaughan led the way as the Dorset Masters team achieved one of its best results in the South West round of the ASA National Inter-County Masters Competition. Hosting the event at the Oxley Leisure Centre in Sherborne, Dorset kept within a point or two of perennial winners Devon for most of the gala, eventually finishing just 7.5 points adrift.

Howard-Jones, 67, the oldest woman in a 33-strong Dorset team whose ages ranged from 21 to 70, swam six times and won all six – the individual Women’s 65/o event on each stroke and two relays with individual 50m times of breaststroke 47.72, backstroke 50.99, freestyle 34.42 and butterfly 43.49. Vaughan, 46, won the 45/o 50m freestyle and butterfly in 26.24 and 28.58 and the 35/u backstroke in 32.72. Laura Bale recorded two individual wins for Dorset in the 25/o 50m backstroke (33.19) and butterfly (32.53). Other individual winners were Robert Lloyd-Evans (65+ breaststroke 46.01), Peter Grounds (55+ backstroke 39.46), Andy Small (45+ backstroke 31.09), Les Jessop (55+ freestyle 31.51), Sarah Meaker (18+ freestyle 28.29) and Tom Cunningham (25+butterfly 27.99).

Dorset also showed its strength in the relays by winning nine of the 20 events, often finishing half a length ahead and lapping the competition more than once, and coming second in a further nine. Race by race results of the 'virtual' gala are now available www.swimming.org showing Dorset’s final national placing as 11th out of the 29 counties participating.

Thanks also go to Sue and Andy Smart, our mandatory officials, and to the small group of Dorset supporters who made the journey to Sherborne together with Kirsty Heard, Laura Bale and Elaine Lewis who took on extra swims at a few minutes’ notice.

RESULTS: Devon 212; Dorset 204.5; Wiltshire 158; Somerset 92.5.

DORSET TEAM: Bere Regis - Bob Holman; Bournemouth SC - Kirsty Heard; Bournemouth Dolphins - Tom Cunningham; Ferndown SC - Cathy Hartle, Jackie O'Connor, Andy Small; Littledown Masters - Peter Kirk, Carol Moss (Littledown); Poole SC - Sean Heppell, Jean Howard-Jones, Elaine Lewis, Joe Lewis, Robert-Lloyd-Evans, Judy McRae, Sarah Meaker, Tony Perrella, Rachael Potter, Lee-Jay Robertson, Nic Vaughan, Alan Werring, Karen Yendole; Seagulls - Martin Scott, Kostas Stamatakis; Wareham - Pete Grounds, Les Jessop; West Dorst - Laura Bale; Weymouth - Helen Dickens, Tony Flattery, Becky Kelly; Weyport Masters - Linda Ashmore, Kate Mason, Paul Mason, Murray Shackleford. Team manager: Roger Guttridge.