Race Report: Loving Lublin (Pool #768)

14 December 2025

I first found out about the European Masters SCM Championships in early September, saw the opportunity to visit Poland for the first time, and had no problem convincing my wife to make a long weekend of it, with a couple of days planned for racing in Lublin and then a couple of days for pure tourism in Warsaw. With Ryanair flying non-stop to Lublin, BA doing the same out of Warsaw, and the excellent and economical PKP Intercity train service between the two cities, we managed to efficiently pack a lot in over four days.

We arrived Thursday night in time for an excellent dinner and then, Friday morning, made our way to Aqua Lublin in time so I could register and get into the first warmup. What we found was an incredible setup, with the exact same professionalism, grandeur and buzz as I had seen when I had streamed the "real" European Championships held at this same pool the week before.

View of the competition pool from each end (click to enlarge pictures)

I never managed to get the full count of swimmers, but thought I heard it was on the order of 1,500. With the events spread over 5 days, the facility seemed perfect: large enough to accommodate everyone comfortably, with sufficient & continuous warmup & cool-down lanes, but busy enough so that it always felt like a "big meet." Oh, and engaged announcers to keep everyone into the action (e.g., lots of meet & European records, along with a number of World Records).

I consciously chose a lighter schedule, in keeping with my plan for this fall's racing with the 100 fly on Friday and then the 50 free and 200 fly on Sunday. Here's how it went down.

100 Fly

• Masters Best – 1:00.30 (2010, age 43)

• 50+ Best – 1:04.77 (October 2025, Southwest Region Open Meet at Millfield)

• Result – 1:02.83

• Reaction -

  • I was beyond stunned with the result. I mean, the race felt great, but, until earlier this year at the Hemel Hempstead meet when I went 1:04.98, the last time I was under 1:05 was 2015 when I went 1:02.71 at the Pacific Masters Championship meet. In addition, I collected the win and this also marked a new European Masters Championship Meet record for my age group!

• I didn't know any of my competitors going into the race, but our seed times portended tight competition.

• ... and the opportunity to race did not disappoint. My wife managed to capture the full race:

• I was very pleased with the result, as I think this showed me that the sprint fly and underwater dolphin kick work I've been doing directly translated into my race performance. What's also evident on the last 25, as I really struggled to finish, is that I still need some more conditioning work. They had touchpads at both ends which showed 25 splits that my wife captured in the video - 13.49, 15.96, 16.32, 17.06.

After cooling down and getting changed, I was then able to experience another superb feasture of this event: actual awards given out on the podium in a very comfortable swimmers' relaxation & awards area inside an arena on the same grounds as the pool:

We capped off Friday night with another excellent meal, at Mandragora in the heart of a neat pedestrianized zone that blends a mix of beautiful old architecture, festive light displays, shopping and a very cool art/global connection installation called the Portal, which connects different cities around the world with live videostreams so you can peer into life elsewhere.

Then, a good night of rest at the beautiful Grand Hotel, which brought to mind design echoes of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and featured these excellent water filling stations on every floor: sparkling water for sparkling swimming!

50 Free

• Masters Best – 25.79 (2008, age 41)

• 50+ Best – 26.37 (October 2025, Swim England SCM Nationals)

• Result – 26.45

• Reaction -

  • I was using this race as a warmup for my 200 fly, but still wanted to perform well. I felt like I executed many mechanics a bit poorly - start, languid turn, choppy and chaotic turnover - but was happy that the time proved that my 26.37 from Sheffield wasn't a fluke.

  • Watching the video my wife took,

• ... didn't look as chaotic as the race felt, but it did point out that I was staying underwater too long off the start and the turn. It also highlighted the two breaths on my second length, one more than desired.

200 Fly

• Masters Best – 2:15.35 (2011, age 44)

• 50+ Best – 2:23.74 (October 2025, Swim England SCM Nationals)

• Result – 2:25.98

• Reaction -

  • Upon touching second, I was exhausted and disappointed. I had a great racing partner in Chester Marsman, who had gotten second to me in the 100 and who took this race out strongly. Though I never felt great at any part of the race, I thought I was going to be able to catch him on the last 50, but I just didn't have the extra gear at the end which he did. Props, Chester to a race well-swum and won!

    
    

• While I was disappointed with the time and place when I hit the wall (as my season plan was to continue to build from my great swim at Sheffield), upon reflection, this wasn't a bad outing. It was a marked improvement over the 2:33.32 I had gone a month ago after being sick and out of the water for 8 days in early November, and is my third best time in the last decade.

• What the video really showed me is something that my good teammate Cate Jackson and Coaches Ian Woollard and Adam Baldwin have told me - I'm riding too low in the water, not recovering high enough and, most importantly, not getting my hips engaged and up enough. These visual reminders of their sage advice will inform my training going forward.

This was a fantastic event and I'm definitely going to make an effort to get to any future European Championships for as long as I live in the UK.

The only one small downside is that I couldn't stick around for the 200 fly awards ceremony, as we had a train to catch to Warsaw. For reasons that were lost in translation, the awards table was willing to let me leave with my "Diploma," but said they couldn't release my medal until the actual awards ceremony. So, it goes.