Martha’s Vineyard swimmers compete in Italy

0
Vineyard Masters swimmers who competed for Team USA at the FINA World Masters Swimming and Open Water Championships in Riccione, Italy. From the left: Rainy Goodale, Les Cutler, Sue Jensen. — Photo courtesy of Les Cutler

Three Vineyard swimmers swam for Team USA and the New England Masters Swim club at the FINA World Masters Swimming Championships held in Riccione, Italy, from June 3 to June 17. The competition brought together more than 12,000 of the world’s best masters pool and open-water swimmers, water polo players, divers, and synchronized swimmers.

Rainy Goodale set a new New England record of 37.53 seconds in the 50-meter breaststroke on her way to eighth place in the 40- to 44-year-old age group. She also set another New England record in the 100-meter breaststroke, with a time of 1:23.06 to place 10th. Rainy also finished 10th in the 200-meter breaststroke in a time of 3:04.77.

Sue Jensen, an Aquinnah summer resident, competed in five individual events in the 50- to 54-year-old age group. She was also a member of the 200-meter mixed freestyle and 200-meter mixed medley Team USA relay teams. Sue placed 13th in the grueling 400-meter individual medley (6:40.58), 15th in the 200-meter individual medley (3:06.43), 18th in the 800-meter freestyle (11:36.45), 26th in the 200-meter freestyle (2:40.22) and 28th in the 100-meter freestyle (1:12.44).

Les Cutler was the only New England swimmer on Team USA in his age group (65 to 69) to compete in the World 3,000-meter Open Water Championships. Because of strong tides and other factors, the 1.86 mile course was challenging, and 14 of the 59 qualifying starters failed to complete the swim before the 90 minute cut-off time. Les completed the swim in 63:48.8 to finish 43rd.