Mid Sussex Marlins relay swimming team breaks world record

A Mid Sussex Marlins relay swimming team has set a new official world record for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in the 280+ category.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Rose Dudeney, Alison Gwynn, Mary Johnson and Sally Mills, whose combined ages add up to more than 280 years, beat the previous world best by 1.56 seconds.

The new record, which has now been confirmed by swimming’s international body FINA, is five minutes and 38.02 seconds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’re thrilled to have finally received official confirmation that we’re world record holders,” said Alison Gwynn, 72.

A Mid Sussex Marlins relay team has been confirmed as the official world record holders for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in the 280+ category.A Mid Sussex Marlins relay team has been confirmed as the official world record holders for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in the 280+ category.
A Mid Sussex Marlins relay team has been confirmed as the official world record holders for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in the 280+ category.

“We’re all lifetime swimming fanatics so it’s great to be able to write our names into the swimming history books,” she added.

The record-breaking swim actually took place at the Swim South East long course championships in Crawley in January 2020.

But the team had to wait 18 months to receive FINA’s official confirmation because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The swimmers were aiming to break more world records last year but Alison said their plans were ‘scuppered’ when restrictions caused pools to close.

“Now we’re back in the pool we’ll be reviewing where we are and our options for the future,” she said.

Alison started swimming as a child with Bromley and represented Kent and southern counties as well as Bristol University.

She joined the Marlins 14 years ago and took up open water swimming during the lockdown.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The other members of the team are Mary Johnson, 70, Rose Dudeney, 73, and Sally Mills, 65.

Mary started swimming with Brighton and represented Sussex as a junior. She has been swimming with the Marlins for more than 30 years.

Rose swam to county level as a child and has been a master swimmer with Marlins since 1990.

Sally learnt to swim at Dewsbury swimming club and joined the Marlins in the 1990s.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Marlin Masters have great depth, sufficient competitive swimmers to make up a number of relays,” said Rose, adding that the club has held plenty of records over the years.

“Our coaches look for good age combinations (160+, 200+, 240+ and 280+) and then try to get the four swimmers to have a go,” she said.