BRACKNELL & Wokingham Swimming Club’s team won an impressive 15 medals at the ASA National Masters in Sheffield recently.

The event is one of the most highly-regarded on the UK swimming calendar and all 17 swimmers that travelled along with coach Jim Dobson were keen to make their mark.

In all, there were some 1200 swimmers competing in an average of four swims each, with the competition taking place over three days and eight sessions.

The first event was the 1500-metre freestyle, where Dave Davenport got the medal count started with a silver medal.

Karen Bassett came close to joining him on the podium but was just 0.30seconds off third place.

Kirsty Johnson suffered a similar fate in the second session as she finished fourth in the 50m freestyle.

But the medal haul was boosted in the third session, firstly by Mike Daniell, who took bronze in the 100m backstroke, and then by Johnson, who won gold in the event.

Following a good night’s sleep, day two started with the 200m backstroke and Kathryn Willis demonstrated how to win in style - eight seconds in front of second place.

Johnson added to her medal collection with bronze in the 50m breaststroke before Richard Pavitt took silver in the 200m freestyle.

The final event in the morning session was the ladies’ medley 4x50m relay, where the Bracknell & Wokingham team of Johnson, Bassett, Allie Boddington and Laura Cooke were defending their title.

Not only did they do that but they did so in convincing style, finishing 3.33 seconds clear of their nearest rivals.

The next medal was silver won by Daniell in the 50m butterfly before the day finished with gold, silver and bronze in the final session.

Johnson was third in the 200m individual medley, Belinda Veasey was second in the same event in her age group, then Veasey anchored the 4x200m freestyle relay with Bassett, Boddington and Karen Leftley to the club’s second relay gold.

There was more success on day three as Daniell was crowned national champion in the 200m butterfly and then took his tally to the tournament to four with silver in the 100m butterfly.

Johnson equalled Daniell’s efforts with gold in the 50m backstroke while Pavitt and Mark Straw were first and second respectively in the 400m freestyle.

Amy Vaal swam a lifetime best to take bronze in the ladies’ 400m freestyle while Veasey picked up another gold for Bracknell & Wokingham in the 100m butterfly.

The ladies’ 4x50m freestyle team just missed out on a hat-trick of medals as they finished fourth and Amy Vaal finished in the same position in the 400m individual medley.

To find out more about Masters swimming with Bracknell & Wokingham Swimming Club visit www.bwsc.org.uk/bwsc_squadsMasters.php.