DONALD Leatherbarrow from Ross-on-Wye has been swimming for the past 20 years in Masters age group events, and now aged 88, he is in his fourth year of the 85/89 age group.

Last weekend his swimming exploits continued as he participated in the Gloucestershire Gala at GL1.

He swam in the 200 metres in the individual medley. Donald said that it was a a really tough event for the older age groups, as it starts with two lengths butterfly which he states was, “a bit of a killer.”

But he excelled himself and the existing record, which was set in 2009, four minutes and 48.88 seconds was beaten.

“I managed to break that by quite a large margin at four minutes 23.03secs, some 25 seconds faster that the standing record,” he said. “I’m very pleased with that, as I had been out of the pool for seven weeks with a medical problem, so I only had three weeks to prepare. I understand that's also a British Record.

“I've had a good few years in this group, setting around 17 long and short course records over four years.” Donald has lived in Ross for the past 15 years with his wife Cindy who he says is his support for his swimming adventures and adds that he couldn’t do it without her.

Donald does all his training at Halo in Ross and said that they are very helpful towards him and their encouragement towards him is appreciated.

Last year Donald broke four British records at the Swim Wales Long Course Masters Championships in Swansea, and took 10 seconds off the old 400m freestyle record with a time of seven minutes 31.26 seconds. In the 200m Freestyle he lowered the time again taking a massive 22 seconds off the previous record to set a new time of three minutes 27.55 seconds.