LOCAL swimming teacher Rebecca Squire won a silver medal when she represented Great Britain at the World Masters Championships in Japan earlier this month.
Rebecca is a swimming teacher at the Melksham Community Campus and a member of Swindon’s Tigershark Amateur Swimming Club. She flew out to Fukuoka in Japan on 30th July, where she took part in three races in the women’s 40-44-year-old age group in the World Masters Championships which are open to swimmers aged 25 and above.
Rebecca said, “It was a great experience and I am really pleased that I went and did it. I did the 100m freestyle swim and came in at sixth place, I was a little bit disappointed with my time on this one, as if I had swum like I did in Sheffield at a competition earlier this year, I would have got a silver medal. I still got a certificate for this though so that was good.
“I then did the 200m freestyle and I came second place. I was really pleased; we had a presentation ceremony and I stood on the podium where I held up the GB flag and was given the silver medal.
“Then I did the 50m freestyle and I came eighth. There’s not really any room for error with this style of race and you basically just get in and go and it’s a race to see who can get to the end the fastest. I got a certificate for this one as well which was nice.”
Rebecca went to Japan with her partner and two team mates from Swindon Tigersharks who also competed at the championships which saw 10,000 people from 100 countries compete in a range of disciplines – swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming and open water swimming.
Rebecca said, “We were there for two weeks in total and had some time to explore the country too. It’s always been a country on my to-do list and I really enjoyed it. Doing these competitions in Japan has definitely put other international competitions on my radar.
“I have just applied to volunteer at the Olympics in Paris next year, so I am just waiting to hear back about that.”
As well as being a member of Swindon Tigersharks, Rebecca is also head coach at Bradford-on-Avon Swimming Club.
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