SwimWay's David Ashton Attends British Masters Championships

From the 8th to the 10th of June 2018, David Ashton, our head coach and site manager for our Kensington Pool, competed at the British Masters Swimming Championships.

swimway instructor david ashton british masters swimming championships
Look how proud he is with all those medals!

Bronze Butterfly

The first event David competed in was the 200-meter butterfly.  A race he has only recently introduced to his line-up this year.  The 200-meter butterfly is widely known as one of the hardest events in swimming.  David finished with a silver medal which he was very pleased with considering this was his first time competing in this event at a national level!  Shortly afterward was the 50-meter freestyle where David picked up a bronze medal.

Silver Butterfly

On the next day of the competition, David had his main event: the 50-meter butterfly.  Last year he took home a silver medal for this.  This year, after a lot of hard work and training, he won the race!  Later that day he swam one of the most competitive and popular events; the 100-meter freestyle, placing 5th overall.

David Ashton wins the 50m butterfly

Silver Freestyle

On the morning of the final day, David competed in another event that was new for him this year, the 200-meter freestyle.  This was a “heat declared winner” event, meaning out of all the individual heats, the swimmer with the fastest time wins.  David was in the third from last heat with final heat being the fastest, so he was not even seeded to come in the top 20.  However, David won his heat by a solid 6 seconds, which then beat everyone in the heat after him, and all but one in the final heat!  This achievement awarded him another silver medal.

Another Bronze Medal!

The final event of the weekend was the 100-meter butterfly, another event where David was not expected to finish particularly highly, but still managed to finish several places higher than his seed position and come away with a bronze medal!

Congratulations on all the hard work paying off David!  We are proud to have you on our team!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR AMAZING INSTRUCTORS