Van Dyke the fastest master

WATER WINGS: Ben Van Dyke now holds six national long course records.

Another year older, maybe, but Ben Van Dyke's increasing years have resulted in a record windfall.

The veteran Nelson swimmer has reaffirmed his impressive aquatic pedigree after setting six age-group records at the New Zealand masters national long course championships in Invercargill.

As part of his record-breaking weekend, Van Dyke set new national men's 60-64 years marks in winning the 50m butterfly (29.77sec) and 50m (28.72sec), 400m (4min 59.67sec), 800m (10min 17.02sec), 1500m (19min 16.47sec) and 100m (1min 3.08sec) freestyle events.

However, the 59-year-old Californian modestly downplayed his achievements, explaining that he was now the new fish in an older age group.

He turns 60 in November, making him eligible to compete in this year's 60-64 category.

Only two of his times were personal bests, and he was particularly delighted with his 1500m swim, during which he also set a new personal best 800m time.

Van Dyke attributed his smart 1500m time to his participation in this year's Port Nelson Summer Sea Swim series, spanning 15 weeks, which ended with yesterday's final race.

"It was just because I'd been training for distance, getting my strength up, because I wasn't really ready for sprints yet," he said.

"The 1500m is no different from a sea swim, it's very close.

"You go out and you set a pace that you think you can hold and then hammer yourself to death, which is basically exactly the same as a sea swim.

"You stagger out of the water."

Van Dyke began competitive swimming as a 17-year-old growing up in Stockton, California and later at San Jose State University.

He eventually took a 30-year hiatus from the sport but belatedly resumed his career about nine years ago as a training partner for daughter Flossie, now aged 20, one of the region's leading triathletes.

She is currently based in Dunedin.

Van Dyke has been in New Zealand for 26 years, 25 of them in Nelson, with no obvious signs of winding down.

In fact, he's already preparing for July's world masters swimming championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he's expecting some fierce competition.

"It's a tough game," he said.

"It doesn't seem like it on the outside, with a whole lot of old people, but the good ones do probably five or six sessions a week and six or seven kilometres in each one.

"It's not as much as the younger kids, but getting close. It's building up each year."

Van Dyke was one of a quartet of Nelson swimmers competing in Invercargill.

Competing in the women's 40-44 category, Kerry Mathieson won the 400m (5min 43.29sec), 800m (11min 45.01sec) and 1500m (22min 7.34sec) freestyle events and was second in the 100m (1min 19.23sec) and 200m (2min 47.7sec) freestyle.

Lindy Kelly won the women's 55-59 50m (36.96sec) and 100m (1min 23.28sec) freestyle.

Belinda Drummond won the women's 35-39 50m backstroke (1min 4.73sec), finished second in the 100m (1min 40.52sec) and 200m (3min 46.89sec) freestyle, and was third in the 50m freestyle (45.46sec).

- © Fairfax NZ News