Harrogate District Swimming Club's Masters stars break world and European records at National Championships

Harrogate District Swimming Club members Julie Hoyle, Jo Beardsworth, Karen Graham and Fiona Cryan broke a world record at the Swim England Senior/Masters National Championships. Pictures: Submitted

The event, which is the highlight of the Masters’ calendar, was held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield and attended by more than 1,000 competitors aged between 18 and 92 years old.

Among them were a team of 15 swimmers from Harrogate District Swimming Club, who left with a world record, four European/British records, 14 gold, five silver and three bronze medals.

The world record was broken early in the meet when the ladies 4x200m front crawl 200-239 years team of Julie Hoyle, Jo Beardsworth, Karen Graham and Fiona Cryan stormed home to beat the previous time by a massive five seconds.

Steve Allen, Julie Hoyle, Karen Graham and Nick Parkes broke the European record in the 4x200m mixed front crawl relay.

A further relay in the 4x200m mixed front crawl saw the 240-279 years team of Steve Allen, Julie Hoyle, Graham and Nick Parkes better the existing time by six seconds.

In the 200-239 years age-group of the same event, Kyran Parker, Philippa Rickard, Beardsworth and Ben Shaw came second, just missing out on top-spot.

Hoyle (60-64yrs) delivered an outstanding individual performance, achieving a triple success as she broke European and British Records in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.

In the same age-group category, Allen swam to victory in the 100m backstroke and added a silver and bronze in the 50m and 200m backstroke.

Rickard (50-54 years) and Beardsworth (55-59 years) both achieved a hat-trick of golds in the 200m/400m and 800m front crawl. Rickard also secured a silver in the 50m fly.

Other golds came from the ladies 200-239 years 4x100m front crawl relay where Rickard, Hoyle, Graham and Cryan narrowly missed the British record by 0.6 of a second, the 4x50m front crawl relay and the 4x50m medley relay, where Hoyle, Rickard and Graham were joined by Sally Evers.

A bronze for Peter Jackson (55-59 years) in the 50m was his first medal at a national event.

The last medal, a silver, came for Parker in the Men’s 800m front crawl.

Lyn Hughes and Stuart Hoyle also swam strongly, while fellow team members Joseph Moore and Dani and Bethany Crump began their Masters swimming journey.