There was nobody capable of slowing down Burnie swimmer Christine Brown at the Australian Masters Games in Adelaide.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Brown finished her seven event schedule in the 60-64 age group with seven medals, picking up gold medals in the 50m, 100m, 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle, silver medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle and a bronze in a medley relay.
The pace of Brown was so consistent that she picked up Tasmanian records for her age group in the 50m and 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle.
Brown said she has been a regular at national masters championships over the years and was thrilled to have a dominant championships.
"I have been a member of masters for 30 years and I have probably done about 17 national championships, but you don't always strike it lucky when you go off to these and win medals," she said.
"My age group is one of the most competitive masters age groups because we were the Shane Gould era and most of the girls are ex-competitive swimmers."
"There were two girls that I have swam against before, normally Debra Wareing from South Australia beats me, which she did in the 100m and 200m freestyle.
"But I was lucky enough to get one over her in the 400m.
"You work pretty hard to get to top level competition, so it is a nice pay off to feel when I was in those races that I could be a medal chance."
Brown said she was not sure of what the quality of fields in the events was going to be, so she was concentrating on whether she could swim personal bests.
"You never know who will turn up at these sort of events and the expectations I have going into these events is to do my best times in this age group.
"I am in the 60-64 age group and I want to be able to stay nationally ranked in the top 10, I have achieved my goal if I perform well."
Brown said it was not just racing strongly in national events that was crucial for a pursuit for a top ten ranking.
"To get in the top 10, it is based off the event times you swim and for each season of short course and long course swimming, you get ranking points up against the FIBA world records.
"You have to be ranked in the high 500s to 1000 to be ranked nationally in the top 10, that proves how competitive it is in the pursuit of the top 10 in Australia."
Brown, who is the president of the Burnie Masters Swimming Club and also competes for the Launceston Lemmings, said the Tasmanian circuit for masters swimming is strong enough to maintain her the race speeds.
"The Tasmanian branch of masters swimming only conduct four swim meets a year, so I normally only go to two or three of those and before the Australian Masters Games, I hadn't done an mainland meet in 18 months.
"Normally if I was to do a mainland event, it will be nationals and that will be one mainland event and three Tasmanian events this year."
Although the national masters campaign was over for this season for Brown, she was not slowing down as she moves towards the summer season.
"If you want to race long course or short course, long course is summer and short course is through the winter.
"I am actually getting back into the big pool and building up towards the summer championships, it has been a while since I swam long course."
There was a strong North-West Coast contingent at the Australian Masters Games across the the packed schedule featuring more than 50 sports with medals up for grabs.
Sign up for the Advocate's sports email newsletter here.