Chanel College principal Jo Matthews didn't only beat the old national record for the 50-54yrs age group in winning the 200m butterfly at a Masters long course swimming meet at Cambridge over the weekend???.she positively smashed it To set a new time Matthews had to better 3mins 25.29secss and while quietlyconfident of her ability do that even she was surprised when she clocked in at 3mins 16.81secs. "I have to say I went a bit faster than I thought I would," she said. "I was hoping to get under the record by a couple of seconds at least but to get there so easily?no, I didn't think that would happen." Matthews said her record attempt went pretty much according to plan except she had swum the first two of the four laps a little quicker than she had been aiming for. "There was a brief moment in the third lap when I started to slow slightly but I knew the record was on and that kept me going," she said. While the 200m butterfly record was the obvious highlight it was by no means the only highlight for Matthews at the Cambridge meet. She won five other events as well, the 100m butterfly, 50m butterfly, 200m breastststroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley. Matthews is now preparing to compete at the World Masters Games in Edmonton in July and the prospects are she will go into the 200m butterfly seeded well inside the top 10. "If I can keep reducing my times then I guess a medal is a possibility," she said.
