Worlds Gwangju 2019

18^th FINA World Masters Championships 2019 – Gwangju (South Korea)

We spent the first few excting days in Seoul to acclimatise to the time zone, before taking the KTX bullet train to Yeosu to watch the 3K open water, where Tony Cherrington came 3^rd in the 75-79 age group.

Seoul is huge.  It was very hot, air conditioning is everywhere.  You only have to walk a few paces before finding yourself looking for a café or shop in which to cool off.  People are very friendly, but English not commonly understood, sign language, pointing at maps, particularly at Korean words, is often required to get by.  The view from the Lotte World Tower, 5^th highest in the world, shows high rise accommodation blocks in every direction. 

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  After watching the Open water we took the athlete’s coach to Gwangju, where the swimming was to be held.

We stayed in a brand new accommodation block, so new in fact that they had sealed off the walls, the surfaces, the kitchen area in plastic sheeting, so as to sell them as new after we had gone.  Even the insides of the lifts were covered in plastic sheeting!  The air conditioning worked well, though!

The swimming championships took place from 12 – 18 August 2019.
Jayne Stephenson, having just moved up to the 65-69 age group excelled in all her events, becoming Gloucester Masters first FINA World Masters Champion.

She won Gold in 100m & 200m freestyle, Silver in 800m freestyle & 200m IM, Bronze in 50m freestyle.

Full results can be found in our Results Pages.  We also have a new Honours board, which can be found on the News page, celebrating past and present swimmers achievements on the International stage.

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