Pickering Master Splashers fielded six swimmers for the annual North York Gator’s Pentathlon meet on Sunday, December 12th. Each swimmer is required to swim 50 metres of each stroke in Individual Medley order (fly, back, breast, free), followed by the 100 I.M. Rankings are based on the cumulative time for all five events. It is one of the fastest paced events as the entire meet, including 200 m free and medley relays at the end, is held between 9 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.

Gerhard Wolfel ranked first in the Men’s 70-74 in a field of three. His cumulative time of 5:00 was 14 seconds faster than the next competitor. Daughter Ursula pointed out her father’s unique clenched fist technique when diving off the starting blocks. We all need to try this aerodynamic approach!

Glen Hanna, in his first ever swim meet, placed third out of six in the 35-39 division. Glen’s combined time of 3:33 was the best showing of the PMS team. Everyone was impressed by Ursula Wolfel’s performance in the pool as she averages only one workout per week but still managed a fourth place finish (45-49). In the same age group, Kevin Gilbert placed eighth out of 12 finishers. In the Men’s 50-54, Paul Gemmink and Andy Manahan finished 12th and 5th respectively out of 15.
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I was pleased to compete at the XIII FINA 2010 World Masters championships held in Göteborg, Sweden during the end of July – early August period. Göteborg is an old Hanseatic town built at the mouth of the Göta River, and became a City in 1621. It is a major port for Sweden and part of its early wealth related to trade with the Orient. The old city had a wall, moat and shooting plain, a park like space which was kept clear of buildings to prevent enemies approaching the fortifications unseen. Other than a few sections, the old wall has been removed, the moat retained and the shooting plain has become a park that circles the old city. The old town is about 12 blocks by 12 blocks in size, and includes the old harbour and many squares.

The city has many canals, including the moat, that are similar to Amsterdam (Dutch engineers were brought in to build the canals). The buildings, many five to seven stories, are similar in scale to Paris.

The event was well-organized: for example, at the airport there was a double decker coach bus to take competitors downtown to the Valhallabadet sports complex for processing. Competitors were photographed and given ID to be used for access to the various venues as well as providing unlimited travel on public transit over the duration of the event. The Valhalla complex has one 50m 10-lane pool, and an adjacent 8-lane, 25m warm-up pool (this pool was used for diving competition in the evenings).

The other swimming pool, Lundbybadet, is located on the north side of the Göta Älv (the large river that runs through Göteborg) and consists of an outdoor 50m, 8-lane pool and an adjacent 25m, 6-lane indoor pool which was used for warm-up. The warm-up pools were typically quite congested and not conducive to any structured sets.

As there were 5,000+ swimmers (not including diving, synchro, waterpolo and open water participants), it was necessary to alternate men and women between the two complexes. The only time all swimmers were together in the same pool (Valhalla) was in the middle of the week for the relays. I swam both the 800 free and the 50 fly in the Lundby pool and the 100 fly in the Valhalla pool.
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