On top of the world

SUPER-SWIMMER Rachel Barton with her 10 gold medals

SWIMMER Rachel Barton smashed two world records and won an incredible 10 gold medals at the National Masters at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

It was a remarkable weekend for the violin teacher from Werneth Primary who was competing in the 60/64 age group category.

And 60-year-old Rachel is clocking quicker times in the freestyle events than when she began competing in the Masters 18 years ago.

That is down to the demanding training regime which would put many more youthful swimmers to shame.

Rachel, who also swims for Trafford, trains three or four times each week in the pool and also does two or three stints in the gym at the JJB Health Club at Elk Mill.

World-record times came in the 50 metres freestyle (31.2sec) and 50m backstroke (36.1) while there was also a British record of 1min 20.6sec for 100m backstroke.

Rachel won all six of her individual races plus four relays out of four to make it a perfect 10 out of 10 success rate.

Indeed, there were also two British and European Masters record times in the mixed freestyle relay and women’s freestyle relay.

Rachel, who has taught in Oldham schools for the last 33 years, is delighted by her successes.

She said: “The fact that my freestyle times are faster than they were 18 years ago when I began swimming in the Masters amazes me. I used to regard backstroke as my strongest event, but now I am just as good with freestyle - and I put that down to the training I do at Trafford.”

In her youth, Rachel was a Great Britain junior international, but had a 28-year break from the sport before returning to the pool to compete in Masters events which are for the over-35s.