Jane Asher and Michael Hodgson back on top in British Masters Decathlon

Jane Asher and Michael Hodgson have won the British Masters Decathlon titles for 2022 after posting the ten strongest swims across the year.

Asher continues her dominance as she won her eleventh consecutive women’s title whilst Hodgson returned to the top of the men’s standings after finishing third in 2021.

The Masters Decathlon is an annual competition which requires swimmers to complete 10 different individual events over the course of the season, with a maximum of two swims per category.

There is no age group split in the competitions, as points are adjusted depending on the age of each swimmer to ensure a fair comparison.

Asher, of Kings Cormorant Swimming Club, won the women’s event after finishing more than 800 points ahead of her nearest challenger with an impressive 7814 points.

Two of Asher’s swims earnt her more than 1000 points apiece which both came at the South East Open Masters Championships back in January 2022.

The final of her ten swims was at the Swim England National Masters Championships where she broke her own world record in the 90-94 Years Women’s 100m Individual Medley by just 0.01 that added a further 980 points to her total.

Georgina Heyn (Teddington) and Judith Pearson (Gateshead and Whickham Swimming Club) completed the podium as the duo maintained their places from 2021.

Georgina’s total of 6974 points secured her second place for the fifth consecutive year with six of her times set at the National Masters Championships.

Pearson was third, a position she’s finished in the last three competitions, on an impressive 6649 points.

Hodgson regains his crown

Michael Hodgson set all of his times at national events as he regained the men’s decathlon crown.

Five of Hodgson’s ten swims were registered at the 2022 British Masters Championships in June, an event where he broke three European and six British records.

Three of his remaining swims came at the Swim England National Masters Championships in October where he added to his growing tally of records and cemented his place at the top of the standings with 7239 points.

Hodgson regained the title that he lost in 2021 to his club mate David Bryant to make it the four wins from five in the competition.

This time around he was in a class of his own as he was the only swimmer to break the 7000-point barrier.

Christopher Jones was best of the rest as he finished second after edging out a close battle for second with a total of 6698.

The Portsmouth Northsea swimmer ended up just 132 points ahead of Hatfield Swimming Club’s Chris Dunn who was third.

Woking and Teddington win team titles

Hodgson’s performance also helped to propel his club Woking to the men’s team title.

Woking’s team of Hodgson, David Bryant, Henry Goodlud and Jerry O’Riordan scored 22,546 for their swims which saw them take the title by more than 2000 points.

It was a group that saw them add almost 5000 points to their 2021 total as they moved from third to first in the standings.

Warrington Masters Swimming Club were the only other team to break the 20,000 points mark.

They set a total score of 20,071 thanks to the combined efforts of Russell Mason, Ben Harkin, Mark Jones and Graham Padgett.

And Trafford Metro Swimming Club edged out Totnes Swimming Club by just 127 points to finish in third place with 19,608 points.

Their team was made up of Christopher Malpass, Neil Mackinnon, Paul Barnard and Alec Johnson.

As for the women’s team event, Teddington retained their title which they have held since 2018.

Led by women’s event runner up Georgina Heyn, Teddington bettered their score by more than 3000 as they finished on a total of 21,367 points.

Joining Heyn was Laure Kearns, Hannah Loughlin, Elizabeth Tarr.

Gateshead and Wickham was a new entry into the top ten teams as they finished second. Judith Pearson combined Nuala Muir-Cochrane, Verity Dobbie and Joan Edwards to set a score of 19,048.

Just like their men’s team event it was Trafford Metro’s who secured the final spot on the podium.

The quartet of Judy Brown, Molly James, Victoria Cunningham and Matilda Thuringer joined forces to score 18,500 points.

You can see the full British Masters Decathlon results here.