Update on Phil Muspratt, Salisbury's Champion Swimmer

A while ago we posted some details on a local swimmer who we were supporting local-swimmer-phil-muspratt-goes-for-gold. We caught up with Phil earlier and he gave us an update on his progress.

Swimming Update since the Ukraine

Following my success in the Ukraine I have been hugely busy in the tail end of 2011. As soon as I landed back home I was in holiday mode for a week, as I had been training through the squads summer break in preparation for the European Championships, so I’d had no summer break what so ever up until this point.

I was soon back in the pool following my week off & competing for Salisbury Stingrays in the County Summer League; of which Salisbury competed in Division 1. I won the 100m freestyle in a time of 51.9 seconds, which would’ve been a Personal Best, if it had been electronically timed.

From this point I continued to train well knowing I had a busy & important period of competing towards the end of 2011. I had a couple of reasonably local events; namely the Poole Masters Open Meet & the South West Regional Masters Sprint Championships, at Millfield in Somerset. At these two events I was happy to come away with golds in all of the races I’d entered at each event, seven at Poole and six at Millfield. In addition, I was also part of the Masters squad that claimed a fourth consecutive County title, after round three of the County Championships in October.

In the weeks leading up to mid October I trained hard on all aspects of my swimming; in the pool, gym, running & fitness classes. This led me to a weeks warm weather intense training camp in Spain with Salisbury Stingrays, where we trained in a long course (50m pool), for two hours, twice a day. This was a very hard weeks training, but of huge benefit. Sadly the weather for the first half of the week was more like Scotland rather than Spain, but I got approximately 50,000 meters training under my belt, so it was worth it.

The day we flew back & landed at Gatwick, my friend and I didn’t return home to Salisbury with the rest of the travelling squad. Instead we got on a train to Sheffield to compete at the National Masters Championships, held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre. Going into the event I knew I was up against some very tough competition in Matt Tutty. He may not stand out as one of the most famous British male sprinters, but he is by no means somebody who shouldn’t be respected. The City of Salford swimmer won the British Championships three years running; in 2005, 2006 & 2007, only for the better known Mark Foster to reclaim the title in 2008. In December 2006 he took notable scalp of Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 50m freestyle final at the Dutch World Championships Trials in Eindhoven. Van den Hoogenband famously rivaled Ian Thorpe in the pool while Thorpe was dominating the sport in the early to mid 2000’s.

I came away from the Nationals with two bronze medals; normally I’d be disappointed with such results, as my natural ambition is to win every event I enter. However considering I’d not rested or tapered my training going into this event and that I’d been travelling all day the day previous, I was chuffed. In my 100m freestyle, I produced a time of 52.15 seconds, after leading the race at the 75-meter mark & then tiring immensely on the final 25 meters. I knew this would only happen again in my 200m freestyle race, so I instead used the event as a 100m Time Trial, in an effort to obtain the PB time I knew I was capable of. I was delighted to eventually claim a PB, for my 100m freestyle, in a time of 51.64 seconds. This time would’ve won me gold if I’d achieved it in an actual 100m race rather than a TT.

I also claimed a Seasons Best time in the 50m freestyle. This was massively encouraging, as I hadn’t been doing any kind of specific sprint training since before I went to the Ukraine back in September, this includes plyometrics, spin class, hill running or sprint work with the athletics club. Plyometric training is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. So once I have all my sprint specific training up & running, I should be improving even further.

The start of my “end of year busy period” started in November where I went on to compete for the next six consecutive weekends. My first stop was at the Aquae Sulis Grand Prix in Bath. This was a level 1 open meet which meant only the fastest swimmers in the country can qualify for the event. To highlight the caliber of the event, the 200m breasktroke had three Great Britain international swimmers entered.

I entered the 100m and 50m freestyle and came away with a  bronze & silver respectivly. I was disappointed with my 100m freestyle, yet I was well aware of the fact that I’d been feeling tired in training the past few days. At the time I was in the mind set that I should train through this tough period & hope that my racing form would improve in my 100m event. If I was to forever rest when feeling tired, I’d never get any training done! I was however happy with my 50m freestyle as I recorded a PB of 24.11 seconds.

On the same weekend in November I was selected to swim for the Wiltshire Masters team, where they were competing in the Inter County Championships. I picked up a win in my individual 50m freestyle race as well as 5 wins in the relays I was selected for.

On two separate weekends, during this aforementioned ‘busy 6 week period’ I competed for Salisbury Stingrays in the National Arena League. Here Salisbury was against teams from across the South West region. Due to a restructuring to the league, Salisbury was promoted to Division One. The first of the two weekends Salisbury were competing in the third & final round of the Division One fixtures, in Plymouth. This was in an effort to qualify for the divisions A or B final. The league, come the end of the three rounds will be divided in two, the top half of the league compete in the A final and the bottom half the B final. Thanks to our results in Plymouth and in the earlier rounds, Salisbury qualified for the A final despite their lower seeding.

In the final itself, which was held at Millfield School in Somerset, Salisbury went on to claim 5^th place, three places beyond their seeded position going into the competition. I was pleased to pick up wins for Salisbury in the 100m in both the final round fixture in Plymouth & the final itself, held at Millfield School in Somerset.

My final masters swimming came at the East Districts Championships, held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Unfortunately on the day of competition I was suffering from illness. I was only able to come away with four silvers & one gold from the races I entered. I swam far from my best, however I wasn’t too disappointed given the circumstances.

I took the decision after reviewing my recent form in the pool, especially in my 100m freestyle events, to take a week off from training. I had been feeling lethargic in training & my form hadn’t been very good while racing. It all came to a head while in Scotland where the tiredness turned into illness. With the importance of swimming at the South West Regional Short Course Championships, it was vital for me to be at some level of fitness; good enough for me to do the club and myself justice. So in the week leading up to the SW Regional Championships, I rested. In that week I only went into the gym to stretch, I took plenty of vitamin C & ate the right foods. During that week I had a light training session on the Thursday before the weekends competition. I didn’t ideally want to take a week off training but it was clear that ‘training through it’, as I had done in previous weeks, was doing me no favours.

The level of competition at the SW Regional Championships was fierce, especially considering the presence of Plymouth Leander. To put things into context they are like the Man City of the region & one of the best clubs in the country & certainly the best in the region. They boast several international swimmers on varying levels, whether it is Junior, Youth or full international level.

Again the SW Regional Championships was held at Millfield School, in Somerset. My first event of the competition was the 50m freestyle & I was over the moon to claim a silver medal, in a time of 23.21 seconds. I took pride in the fact that the only swimmer who managed to beat me, won silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India and goes by the name of Anthony James. Also in doing so, I beat several swimmers who’d represented Great Britain at varying levels. The time in which I won my silver medal was a new PB & put me 17^th in the current British swimming rankings. This now means I’m ranked 3^rd in the British Masters short course rankings & 17^th in the British rankings (basically this is the ranking of every swimmer in the country over certain disciplines, including professionals).

The following day I was back in the pool in the 100m freestyle. Having qualified for the final in a PB time of 51.48 seconds, I went on to claim 5^th place in final in another PB time of 51.33 seconds. Of the four swimmers who’d finished ahead of me, one was again a silver medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, one swam for Great Britain in a relay at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, one was a double medallist at the European Junior Championships and the other has appeared for Great Britain in a FINA World Cup meet, in Berlin in 2011.

My final action of 2011 was at the Level One Open Meet at Hillingdon, London. Attending the competition was Craig Gibbons who swam at the World Championships for Great Britain in 2006 (in Melbourne) and 2008 (in Manchester). He’s also swam for Great Britain at the 2004, 2008 & 2009 European Championships, as well as having several other international appearances from 2004 to as recently as last year. My first event of the weekend was the 100m freestyle. After competing for the last 6 weekends in a row, my performance certain told a tired story, where I finished in a disappointing sixth place. If I had equalled my current best time I would’ve claimed a bronze medal. The following day I was back in the pool and put on a much better display in the 50m freestyle, where I finished in third position, behind eventual winner Craig Gibbons.

My natural aim is to win every race I enter, but 12 months ago I was nearly stopped swimming all together. So to look back over the past year, see myself getting over my personal problems that hindered me in 2010 and to now be medalling in the same competitions (level 1 open meets) that international swimmers are attending, is a massive boost to me. I may not be winning every race I enter, but putting things into prospective while considering the past 12 months or so, I’m really pleased with how I’ve done this past year.

Over the next 12 months I aim to obviously continue getting fitter, stronger and faster. I fully believe I can win at the tough level 1 open meets that I attend & with that will come British Championships qualification times, where the better known Rebecca Addlington & Liam Tancock compete. I have qualified for the National Youth Championships next July and here I believe I can at least reach the final & even medal at these championships.

We wish Phil all the best in his future aspirations.