Matthew Bradley of Bishop Auckland competed for the first time at the Swim England National Masters competition at the Ponds Forge International Pool in Sheffield on the 27-28th October 2017.
Matthew who is 19 years old and swims for Sedgefield 75 ASC at Aycliffe and is also a member of the Durham Institute of Sport was competing in the 18-24 years age group. The competition attracts swimmers from around the United Kingdom and it was a packed program with some stiff competition.
Matthew’s first swim was the 100 metres backstroke where he achieved a lifetime best time of 59.45 seconds for the event and was placed 5th. This was the first time Matthew had gone sub one minute in this event.
Matthew excelled in the next event, the 200 metres freestyle, achieving a lifetime best time of 1.54.29 and taking the gold medal to be become National Masters champion in this event.
The first day finished with a good swim in the 100 metres Individual Medley where Matthew swam on a season’s best time of 1.02.52 and was placed 16th.
On Saturday Matthew competed in three more events. The first of these was the 50 metres backstroke where Matthew achieved a season’s best time of 28.48 seconds and was placed 11th. This was followed by the 50 metres freestyle where he swam another season’s best time of 24.09 seconds and was placed 10th.
Matthew’s final swim was the 100 metres breaststroke where he rounded off a very successful weekend by achieving another seasons best time of 1.07.28 and was placed 7th.
Matthew trains several times a week at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre pool and at Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre gym and complements his swimming training with a mixture of running and gym work.
