Three gold medals to Masters swimmer

DAVID WEINER

AUSTRALIAN Masters swimmer Jeff Sher has won three gold medals and one silver medal to be one of Australia’s star individual performers at the Maccabiah Games.

Sher opened his account with gold in the 200-metre freestyle on Monday (July 20), before adding gold in the 50-metre freestyle and 400-metre freestyle in the 50-54 age bracket on Tuesday (July 21). His times were so competitive in the 200-metre freestyle that he would have won the races in the 40-44 and 45-49 age groups.

“I was pretty proud of that swim,” Sher said. “It would put me in the third or fourth position in the world for my age”.

His 50-metre blitz was the second fastest time across all the age groups on the day -— another world Top 10 time -— while the 400-metre freestyle was not even a race he was originally going to contest until his coach prompted him to do it.

With Australia unable to field a 50-54 years relay team, he joined forces with Brian May, Warren Kotsis and George Lazarus to claim a silver in the under-50 age group relay.

With the 100-metre freestyle and 4×50 medley relay to come, Sher is on his way to collecting a swag of medals -— not a bad feat for someone who only started swimming seriously two years ago.

Sher is a veteran of four Maccabiah Games as a water polo player in 1981, 1985, 1989 and 1993, and has once again been touched by the Maccabiah buzz upon his return as a masters athlete.

“Coming back with the masters has been a great experience it’s been really good being part of this masters team.”

With these fast times under his belt, Sher is thinking of competing at the World Masters Games in Sweden next year.

In other masters news, Clive Aaron claimed gold in the 50-54 100-metre breaststroke.

Margot Mann won silver in the 60-64 50-metre freestyle; Warren Kotsis won bronze in the 40-44 400-metre freestyle; Brian May won silver in the 45-49 200-metre individual medley and 100-metre breaststroke; and Trevor Wainstein won silver in the 55-59 100-metre breaststroke.