| Masters Swimming |
Speaking of masters in the golf world, major players from all over the world participate, but the masters swimming is amateur tournament. Anybody can participate regardless of age or time by doing a prescribed procedure. One day, a masters swimming competition was held in a pool near my home, I witnessed that many elderly swimmers are participating. Classes are divided by age (every 5 years), to my surprise, there is even 100 years old class. It is the basic spirit of the masters to enjoy swimming than to win the race, and if I register with the Japan Masters Swimming Association there is no participation restriction of time etc. I thought "This is it!". Therefore I first acted with the aim of participating in swimming competition hosted by municipalities or sports clubs where the level is not so high. Well, how is this challenge that seems a reckless at the age of over 60 ?
1. Outline of Masters Swimming Competition
According to the Japan Masters Swimming Association, the outline of masters swimming competition is as follows.
With a motto of "Health, Friendship, Mutual Understanding and Competition", it is meant for people of a wide range of age groups to enjoy a healthy and bright life with many fellows through swimming. Internationally, it is prescribed to be over 25 years old, but in Japan it is 18 years old or over. We compete by ages classified in 18 to 24 years old, and from 25 years old for every 5 years. Competitions are distinguished as "Organized Competitions" hosted by the Association and "Authorized Competitions" organized by local governments or sports clubs. It is further subdivided into short course (25 m pool) and long course (50 m pool), short distance (25 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m) and long distance (400 m, 800 m, 1,500 m). The kind of events is freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, individual medley and group relays. To register as a member to the association, we must belong to one of the sports clubs that have already registered with the association team. After that, we will register personal member through our sports club. A registration fee of 1,500 yen/year is required. In addition to entering the masters swimming competition, entry fee (1,000 yen to 3,000 yen/event according to competition) is required per event. Participants are given an official certificate. Medals (sometimes also certificates) will be awarded from 1st to 3rd place.
2. Admission to Sports Club
I joined a sports club near my home. The enrollment day was January 1, 2010 and sttarted practicing from
January 5. Three lanes are occupied when practicing course with coach begins, other members can freely
use the remaining three lanes.
If you put the mouse, it will be enlarged. (Same below)
A registration certificate that I was applying for the registration of the members has arrived. I can
participate in the masters swimming competition any time with it. In addition, this registration
certificate needs renewal every year and the registration fee is 1,500 yen.
3. Recent Status of Activity
Herewith I introduce the recent stsus of activity regarding masutars swimming.
(1) Making of Starting Table
To start the race in the Olympic swimming competition, the start table with fin is used. In the
masters swimming, the flat table without fin is normally used, but in the Japan Masters Competition
the table with fin is now being used. So I made my own starting table with wood to get used to it.
The picture shows the starting practice with the completed start table. I can expect to get a
better start than ever because I can kick strongly with the help of the fin.
(2) Nationwide Ranking within 50th Place
The Japan Masters Swimming Association edits the nationwide ranking within 50th place for each
event from the results of the sponsorship and certified competition held in the previous year and
sells it at a price of 3,000 yen. I bought it expecting that my name is nominated therein. The results
are as follows. Note that in case of competition over 200 m for my 70-year old class, the number of
participants does not reach 50. So I can win the glory of nationwide ranking within 50th place
regardless of time just by swimming without disqualification.
Short Course (25m pool):
50 m Breaststroke; 27th Place, Time, 44:05
100 m Breaststroke; 8th Place, Time, 1:32:47
100 m Butterfly; 15th Place (33 participants), Time, 1:44:60
100 m Individual Medley; 22th Place, Time, 1:32:73
Long Course (50m pool):
50 m Breaststroke; 16th Place, Time, 44:04
100 m Breaststroke; 8th Place, Time, 1:35:07
200 m Breaststroke; 4th Place (24 participants), Time, 3:34:99
200 m Individual Medley; 15th Place (38 participants), Time, 3:40:05
400 m Individual Medley; 4th Place (10 participants), Time, 7:54:48
(3) Double Winning within 8th Place at the First International Tournament
I attended the 1st Asian Masters Swim Championship Tournament in Nagoya City on July 11 (Wednesday)
to 16 (Monday), 2018. A total of 5,500 people including 250 foreigners will participate. I attended
the breaststroke of 200m and 100m which I am most proud of. Since I swim only once a day, I won the
5th place and the 6th place double prize with good time. It was a nice result for me as I remained
to the final race in 2 events of the Olympic Games.
The venue is near Kasadera Station on the JR Tokaido line, 4th station from Nagoya Station
to the Tokyo direction. I arrived after walking 5 minutes from the station in a temperature of 37
degrees. The national flag of the participating country is posted and it is telling that it is an
international tournament. Participating countries other than Japan were China, Korea, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Oman.
It is inside the main pool, but it is almost the same shape as the Tatsumi international pool in
Tokyo. At first it felt a little dark, but comfortable brightness comes when you get used to it.
Since it is an irregular race format in which men and women start alternately from the left and
right of the pool, the waiting time from the convocation to the start was felt for a long time.
It is a prompt report of 200m breaststroke. Since it is the final event of July 13 (Friday), even
if I departed from my house in the morning of the day, I had plenty of time to spare. I assumed
that it is likely to be in the 5th to 6th place from the entry time of the contestant, so I
actually won the 5th place.
It is a prompt report of 100m breaststroke. Since it is the first event on July 15th (Sunday),
I left the business hotel in front of Nagoya station around 6:30. Since the Chinese swimmer who
I lost at 200m previous day was the next lane, I decided to win by 100m and started off. As a result,
I was able to swim a step ahead from the beginning to the end, and I was able to finish 6th place
by suppressing other leading Japanese swimmers.
It is iron medal that I got for the first time in my life. At the ordinary masters swimming
competition, medals are determined to be gold, silver, and copper, but like the Japan Masters,
the medals are awarded to the winners from the 4th to the 8th in this tournament. It is black
and it has a heavy feeling and it seems to be valuable memories acquired at the international
tournament.
I attended the masters swimming tournament hosted by my sports club at Chiba International Pool
in Narashino City on September 23 (Sunday), 2018. It is held every autumn where 1,300 people
attend. I won double gold medal by participating in 50m and 100m butterfly.
Since this year there were many contestants from my club, we took a round trip to Narashino by
minibus. I was secretly planning to be able to update the new record of the tournament of 50m
butterfly of 70 years old which I issued two years ago, but because the water temperature was
extremely low, the time of 50m butterfly was 1.5 seconds slow. Although I took a gold medal, I
was not so glad.
I newly challenged 100m butterfly this year because I am bored with 100m breaststroke. Luckily
the 70-year-old contestant was only me, so I carefully swam so as not to be disqualified. The
result and time is the same as last year. Butterfly can swim well up to 50m but at 100m, 200m
the time increases with a 1.6 power curve. Sure enough, it was 2.5 times the 50m butterfly's time
I swam 2 hours ago.