Chris Orchard excels at world swimming champs

04 Oct 2019

Deepings Swimming Club’s Chris Orchard took his place among the world’s best masters swimmers when he travelled to Gwangju, South Korea, for the 2019 World Masters Championships in August.

Chris competed in five events in the 60-64 age group, although he qualified for several more. He finished inside the top 20 in three races after a series of excellent performances.

His best placing was 16th, which he achieved twice, in the 800m freestyle and 50m breaststroke. In both, he was the second fastest British swimmer in his age group, with a time of 12:35.06 in the 800m freestyle and 41.89 in the 50m breaststroke – only the second time he had broken 42 seconds in a 50m long course pool.

Chris swam a new personal best in the 200m freestyle, touching home as the fastest Brit, 18^th overall in the world. He cemented his place as the UK’s fastest freestyler in his age group at the champs by finishing 23^rd in the 100m freestyle (in a time of 1:18.46) and 31^st in the 50m freestyle (in 35.10) to cap an outstanding few days in South Korea.

Gwangju was Chris’s second World Masters, following Budapest in 2017 where he swam in just one event. He was upbeat about his results considering the eight-hour time difference and lengthy journey to get to South Korea.

"The World Masters Championship was an exhilarating experience with swimmers from over 80 countries competing,” Chris said. “I could only have qualified thanks to the support and guidance of Lynn Chapman, head coach at Deepings SC, and the tolerance of all the fellow swimmers at Deepings.”

Lynn Chapman was delighted with Chris’s achievements at the 2019 championships.

“I’m really pleased for Chris,” she said. “He works hard in training and has proved himself to be among the best swimmers in the world with some great results.”

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