Devon regain Swim England Masters Inter-Counties title

Devon regained the Swim England National Masters Inter-Counties title after five nationwide events took place on Sunday.

It marked the county’s return to the top of the standings, following their victory in 2022, after they secured a total of 1972 points.

Consistency was the key for the South West side, finishing inside the top 10 for the majority of the events, including 12 victories.

Three of those came courtesy of Simon Veale, who was quickest in each of the 50m butterfly, backstroke and freestyle events for the open/male 65-70 age group.

Warren Barrett, Helen Kula-Przezwanski and Zoe Cawsey came out on top in two events each whilst Ben Winter and Kalon Veale also took victories to help cement Devon’s place at the top of the standings.

Finishing narrowly behind Devon in second place was Surrey with a total of 1963.50 points.

Strong efforts from the likes of Mike Hodgson, Michelle Ware and Georgina Heyn helped propel them towards the top of the standings but they just missed out by less than 10 points.

Defending champions Hampshire rounded out the top three, setting a total of 1951.50, which was only around 20 points off top spot.

Jeroen Peters, chairperson of the Swim England Masters Swimming Leadership Group congratulated Devon on their victory.

He said: “Congratulations to Devon on regaining the Masters Inter-Counties title.

“This year proved to be one of the closest competitions to date, with several counties battling it out for top spot in every single race.

“There were some incredible individual and team swims from Devon and all those involved and it’s clear to see that the quality of Masters swimming is improving every single year.

“It was great to have 31 counties compete – two more than what we had in 2023. Hopefully next year we can have all 33 involved and we hope to welcome Cambridgeshire and Lancashire back to the competition for 2025.

“A huge thank you to all the swimmers, coaches, officials and volunteers from across the country that supported each of the events so that this competition could take place.”

The Masters Inter-Counties competition, which began in 2000, has 72 events all of which are 50m’s or 4x50m relay events with competitors ranging from 18 years old all the way up to the 75+ Years category.

The number of points awarded for the fastest swim in each event is equal to the number of counties participating with one point less for the second fastest all the way down to one point for the slowest county.

You can view the full standings from this year’s event below with the combined results from each of the individual races available here.