The chair of a Greater Manchester swim club has expressed his joy after the club won a national competition in October.
Trafford Metro Masters team took the top spot at Swim England National Masters 2022, breaking a total of 13 records at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge.
Bob Bolton, who coaches at the club, described the win as ‘amazing’.
He said: “The atmosphere around the pool was just fantastic, it was something that we targeted 12 months ago.
“We’ve worked towards it as a team and to realise your year long effort has paid off was quite something else really”.
Alec Johnson, who swam in the 60-65 years age group for the club, broke four British records at the championship.
He also broke 20 British and European records over the past year with Mr Bolton describing him as a ‘phenomenal performer’.
When asked about his secret to success, Mr Bolton said that without keeping team morale high none of it could have been possible.
The club regularly train at Sale Leisure Centre which is the starting point for most of Trafford’s young swimmers.
He said: “Part of the success of our team is taking a swimmer at age six, seven, eight-ish, and make sure that we’ve still got them at 18 years of age.
“If we make it that our club is enjoyable to come and swim at, a place to make lots of friends, and the option of different exercises both land and pool based, it makes people want to stay and that’s really what we pride ourselves on.
“It’s a success story regardless of how well they’ve performed in the pool and what they’ve achieved, and that’s the icing on the cake really”.
