BARBARA Morton ruled supreme in the ninth Wolverhampton Masters swimming championships where she competed in age group 65 to 69 years.

The Darwen swimmer completed an impressive weekend's swim with nine gold medals and all coming in meet best times. Not to be outdone Pamela Blackwell also climbed the winners rostrum twice with victories in the 200m individual medley and the 100m backstroke. he finished fourth in her three other events in the 35 to 39 years age group.

Making up a trio of Darwen swimmers competing at the Central Baths, Garry Vickers just missed out on the medal places when he finished in fourth spot three times in age group 30 to 34 years. Meanwhile in the 1999 British Telecom Swimathon where more than 6,000 competitors raced it out over 5,000 metres, two Darwen swimmers featured. They were Helen Weatherby, who was second in the 70 years and over category in a time of 2hrs 32mins 22secs, and Peter Tucker who came third in the 69 to 69 years group. Peter's time was 1:23.05.

Full results: Garry Vickers (30-34) 100m individual medley (4) 1:12.52, 50m f/s (4) 28.00, 100m f/s (4) 1:02.06; Pamela Blackwell (35-39) 100m back (1) 1:27.47, 200m i/m (1) 3:04.83, 200m f/s (4) 2:44.25, 100m breast (4) 1:32.00, 100m i/m (4) 1:25.86; Barbara Morton (65-69) 25m back (1) 24.57, 50m back (1) 52.17, 100m back (1) 1:50.71, 25m breast (1) 23.94, 50m breast (1) 52.84, 25m f/s (1) 19.77, 50m f/s (1) 44.20, 100m i/m (1) 2.00.38, 25m fly (1) 27.05 - all meet records.

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