A HOST of Suffolk swimmers made top-three finishes at the Regional Inter-Counties Masters as they helped their county to a fourth-placed overall finish.

A HOST of Suffolk swimmers made top-three finishes at the Regional Inter-Counties Masters as they helped their county to a fourth-placed overall finish.

Swimmers from Stowmarket, Mildenhall, Sudbury, Hadleigh and Deben swimming clubs represented Suffolk at the gala held at Peterborough, gaining 23 top-three individual placings, including six victories.

All over England other regional Inter-Counties galas were taking place and totals of all the regional results were added together.

The most outstanding performance from Suffolk's swimmers was by Shaun Harrison who is the national champion in the men's 25-34yrs front crawl.

Other top class results came from Dales Barker, Ashley Buck and David Harrison who all came fifth in their respective events (35-44 years back, 25-34 years back and 19-24 years breast).

The individual winners were David Harrison (19-24 years age group) in the 50m breast & 50m front crawl, Shaun Harrison (25-34 years), also in the 50m breast & 50m frontcrawl, Ashley Buck (25-34 years) in the 50m back, and Dale Barker (35-44 years) in his 50m back.

The Harrison brothers and Buck were clear winners in their races, but Barker's was the closest sprint of the meet, using sheer determination over the last few strokes to win by one hundreth of a second.

It was the relays that Suffolk really excelled in, gaining ten top three finishes out of a possible 20. The younger male relay teams totally dominated the other counties with pure quality in depth winning all four of the relays.

The combined 100 years+ team of Ashley Buck, Ollie Bumstead, Keith Brown and Shaun Harrison won the freestyle and medley relays, winning by over four seconds in the medley, while the 76yrs+ squad of Buck, the Harrisons and Bumstead also won both medley and freestyle relays, crushing the opposition by a massive seven seconds in the medley.

Buck, Andy Wright, Peter Lynch and Dale Barker were second in the men's 160yrs+ race.

The ladies were third in five relays; 76yrs+ freestyle (Lucy Russell, Sam McGee, Sarah Holden and Kimberley Hough), the 100yrs+ medley (Holden, Kate Davis, Hough and Sam Fulcher), 160yrs+ freestyle (Davis, McGee, Karen Billington and Sue Holdich), 200yrs+ medley (Billington, Holdich, Vicki Buck & Fulcher) and also the 200yrs+ freestyle (Jeannie Morley, Angela Dann, Billington and Holdich).

Top three placings

Ladies

Sarah Holden (19-24yrs): 3rd 50 back 34.32sec, 3rd 50 frontcrawl 30.61.

Kimberley Hough (25-34yrs); 2nd 50 frontcrawl 30.04, 3rd 50 fly (19-24yrs group ) 33.25.

Kate Davis (25-34yrs): 3rd 50 breast 41.58.

Karen Billington (45-54yrs): 3rd 50 frontcrawl 32.74.

Vicki Buck (55-64yrs): 2nd 50 frontcrawl 38.92, 3rd 50 fly 51.43,

Sue Holdich (55-64yrs): 3rd 50 breast 49.14.

Bobbie Wilson (65-74yrs): 3rd 50 breast 1min 13.85, 3rd 50 fly 1min 18.55.

Men

David Harrison (19-24yrs): 1st 50 breast 31.23, 1st 50 frontcrawl 25.37, 3rd 50 fly 27.88.

Shaun Harrison (25-34yrs): 1st 50 breast 32.13, 1st 50 frontcrawl 24.67.

Ashley Buck (25-34yrs): 1st 50 back 29.77.

Keith Brown (25-34yrs): 2nd 50 fly 28.76. 2nd 50 back (19-24yrs group) 31.33.

Dale Barker (34-44yrs): 1st 50 back 31.89, 3rd 50 fly 31.65.

Len Phoenix (55-64yrs): 3rd 50 back 38.93, 3rd 50 frontcrawl 32.11.

Overall Results

1 Essex 297pts, 2 Norfolk 281pts, 3 Hertfordshire 249pts, 4 Suffolk 214pts, 5 Cambridgeshire 193pts, 6 Bedfordshire 147pts.