A TRIO of Stroud Masters made the journey to Rijeka in Croatia recently to compete in the 2016 European Masters Open Water Swimming Championships.

The event attracted more than 400 competitors from all over Europe, including over 30 swimmers from the UK.

The swim took place along the beautiful coastline between Rijeka and Opatija in northern Croatia.

The race itself was over 5km with each competitor swimming out and back over a 2.5km straight-line course.

Jessica Wooddisse was the first of the Stroud swimmers to enter the water and had a great race to finish second in her age-group and as 12th- placed lady overall across all age-groups.

Sean Kinsey and Mark Partridge swam in the same heat with Sean battling it out for first place with two Italian swimmers for most of the race.

He eventually finished in third place with less than twenty seconds separating the first three places.

Mark managed to swim in clear water for most of the race and finished as second placed Britain in twenty-fourth position.

The team are now looking forward to competing in next year’s Masters World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.