Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members Lizzie Bellinger and Alyson Fordham win eight medals between them at British Masters Championships in Swansea
Lizzie Bellinger and Alyson Fordham brought home eight medals between them from the British Masters Championships.
The former also broke an East Region record as the Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members excelled in Swansea.
Herts and Essex High School PE teacher Bellinger, who competes in the 45-49 age group, obliterated the field in the 100m fly to finish almost 14 seconds ahead of her closest rival in 1min 10.36sec.
She also broke the East Region record when taking silver in the 200m individual medley (2.41.73). She then added a second gold medal in the 50m fly (30.67sec).
Retired doctor Fordham, who won a bronze medal at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and was the Great Britain junior team doctor in the late 1980s/early 1990s, was also on fine form.
Competing in the 65-69 age category, she easily won gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle (30.62 and 1.10.51 respectively) and also topped the podium in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1.24.15.
She also added a couple of silver medals to her haul in the 50m backstroke (39.30) and 50m breaststroke (42.79).
And there has been even more good news for the pair as they feature on the World Aquatics top-10 fastest lists for 2023, which have just been published.
Fordham became the fastest woman in the world in her 65-69 age group in the short course (25m pool) 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke and the 100m IM.
She showed her versatility by also being the fourth fastest in the 50m backstroke, fifth in the 200m freestyle and 50m breaststroke as well as seventh in the 100m breaststroke.
In the long course (50m pool) format, she topped the world rankings in the 50m freestyle and was third fastest in the 100m freestyle, fourth in the 50m breaststroke, fifth in the 200m freestyle and seventh in the 50m backstroke.
Bellinger also got into the 2023 world top-10 rankings for both short course (SC) and long course (LC) events.
She was the third fastest competitor in the SC and LC 100m butterfly, sixth in the SC and LC 50m butterfly and SC 200m IM, seventh in the SC 400m IM and ninth in the LC 200m IM.
