Barracudas bring home medals for Team GB/NI

Despite it being the summer break for the majority of the club Leyland we have had two of our Masters swimmers,  Matt Burrows and Pam Lane, competing in Newcastle at the 2019 World Transplant Games.  Having had amazing success at his first Games in 2017 – winning 7 Golds and setting new World Transplant Games records, Matt was on everyone’s radar this time and the man they all wanted to beat.   Pam also medalled at the last games and was keen to continue her improvement and bring home more hardware.  The pressure was on!  

With some very close racing across both days Matt started day one narrowly beaten into Silver medal position in the 50m Butterfly by 4/10ths of a second; took a Silver in the 100m Freestyle but swam to glory in the 100m Breaststroke doing a personal best time to take the Gold.  Pam had some tough American and Australian competition in her events but had a great swim in the 50m Backstroke to bring home a Bronze medal and an even better one in the 50m Freestyle where she took the Silver. 

Day two saw them both in action again.  Pam finished 4th in the 50m Freestyle but brought home Gold in the 100m Backstroke – particularly pleasing for Pam after her Bronze in the 50m event where she is the current European Transplant Champion.  Fantastic job!  Matt finished the meet with two more individual Gold medals in 50m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke – both were really close races where Matt set new World Transplant Games record times to win.  The Breaststroke record was the one he really wanted as he missed out on this last time.  He was also a member of the Gold medal winning Freestyle relay team where they also set a new World Record. 

Amazing swimming from two adult athletes who were given a second chance in life thanks to their donor families.  They are both determined to make the most of the chance they have been given in tribute to their donors.  If you want to know more about organ donation you can visit https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk