Sheffield swim team, combined aged 240, breaks world record

A team of swimmers with a combined age of 240 has set a new world record during a national competition.

The City of Sheffield team set a time of 1:52:06 in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay on Friday at the GoCardless Swim England Masters National Championships.

The time, set at the city’s Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, broke last year’s record for their age category – also set by a team from Sheffield – by six seconds.

“All we could say to each other was ‘wow’,” said team member Jonathon Saunders, 58, who confessed it had been his plan all along to break a record.

Over the course of the weekend, the City of Sheffield swim squad – which includes 47 swimmers aged 18 to 75 – broke five British records.

The overall competition featured more than 400 competitors from clubs across the UK.

Two of the members of Sheffield’s world record-breaking team, Dawn Kissack, 61, and Lindsey Gaywood, 63, had been swimming together at the club since they were 13.

“We swam for Sheffield at the old Park Baths and then Dawn went off to Scotland,” Ms Gaywood said.

Ms Kissack, who travelled down from Scotland for the competition, said it was “worth the trip” to swim with the team.

Andrew Moore, 58, the team’s newest member, had been competing for a year.

Mr Moore had been a swimmer since he was eight, but “retired many times in between”.

He said the win was down to team coach Abbie Whiting, who joined the team in 2021.

“She’s been behind us the whole time,” he said.

“She’s really good at getting the best out of us.”

Ms Whiting said: “Sheffield has great facilities and the club makes good investments into grassroots swimming, but we are lucky to have the facilities we have.”

While the team loved competing, Ms Kissack said it was also “about friendship and staying healthy”.

Mr Saunders added: “It’s not just the four of us, the squad is a big family – it’s a friendly, welcoming community.”

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.