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  • 2 weeks ago

T&T's Masters athletes will be continuing a legacy in Masters Swimming as they compete in the Barbados Masters Festival. Veteran Swimmer Gordon Bordon will go down as one of the pioneers who put T&T on the map with Masters Swimming internationally. At 87 he still has a swim in him as he recounted his experiences in the sport in his later years.



Transcript
00:00President of the Trinity Masters Swim Club, Gordon Bord, says he has swam 121 cross-harbour
00:06events and several more of his achievements have probably come before many of you were
00:11born.
00:12I also went to the first World Masters in Toronto, Canada with Joey Kaufman, you see
00:20him right there on the board, right?
00:23In 1984, that was the first World Masters ever put on by FINA.
00:30After all, who lives to 87 and does not have a story to tell?
00:35His recollection, though, of the circumstances come to him as if it happened yesterday.
00:39As far as he is concerned, he's got some living to do.
00:43Well, my father, well, basically, he never was a swimmer or anything, but he was a person
00:49he worked in the works and hydraulics department, you know, he was a district engineer, and
00:56he, but he did a lot of hunting and so on.
01:00And he lived to 97 years old.
01:03You don't think you've lived your full life yet?
01:05No, not as yet.
01:06I'm still 10 years behind him, you know, yeah.
01:10And how far do you intend to go on swimming?
01:12Well, I mean, I feel very, very good at 87 years old, you know.
01:19As I tell you, I swim here three times a week, and I swim about a thousand meters.
01:26He won five gold medals in the 85-98 group category at the Pan Am Masters Championships,
01:32and he knows how difficult it will be for there to be more competition moving forward in his
01:37age group.
01:38Well, you know, funnily, I went to a few master meets and so on, and you'll find
01:45that the number of people that participate in that age group is considerably less than the
01:55people in other age groups.
01:57Naturally, people die often, or they lack the interest to continue, you know.
02:03So what sort of tips would you give someone your age that is swimming?
02:08Well, as long as they're physically fit and nothing is wrong with them and their heart
02:13is good and everything, I think they should come and do a certain amount of swimming, right?
02:18It is good for them, as I tell you.
02:21He will not be taking part in the Barbados Masters Swimming Festival.
02:25However, Wendy Amman will be taking a dive in the water.
02:28I was a national swimmer when I was an age grouper, and we didn't even know anything about
02:34Masters Swimming back then.
02:36So it was only in my 30s that I started Masters Swimming and never stopped.
02:42And it's my social life, it's my exercise, it's my reason to get up every morning.
02:49She believes there's lots more to achieve as a Masters Athlete.
02:54Now you're on your own time as an age grouper, there are certain things and you go to them,
02:59but as a Masters Swimming, you can pick what meet you want to go to.
03:03And you meet people from all over the world with the same mindset.
03:08They're old, we're hurting, the knee is breaking down, we're forgetting, we'll be still swimming.
03:14Sergio Dufour, TV6 Sport.
03:19if you're subconsciouslyzysta and it's everything else then.
03:26ähnlich.
03:27that Daddy would've thought of as happy as you can with these animals as you go to bed next to the next day.
03:34Taylor Audren, were….
03:36you do.
03:37I will dive into this nice thing, and outro one.
03:38I will dive into this nice biological language.
03:40I think your whole show will help this next day.
03:42So it works.
03:43Let's age enough.
03:45Let's go back and lazy.
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