STROUD Masters covered themselves in gold glory at the Italian World Masters Swimming Championships.

This event provides an opportunity for masters swimmers aged over 25 from around the world to compete against each other at the highest possible level.

Geoff Twinning started the week with the 800m freestyle, where he gained an excellent fourth place in his age-group, his best-placed position of the week.

Geoff also gained a seventh place in the 200m IM and 200m butterfly, as well as a 10th in the 400m IM.

Scott Nelson competed in the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke and finished within the top five British competitors in each event.

Richard Searle swimming in the 50m backstroke achieved a creditable 35th position in his age group and the 100m backstroke, where he finished in 29th position.

The 3km Open Water sea swim was held on the final weekend of the competition.

With more than two thousand competitors the event was held over two days with competitors taking to the sea in waves of 60 swimmers.

In what proved to be an extremely hard fought race, as well as being the closest race of the weekend, Jessica Wooddisse held off local rival Kate Nimmo from Cheltenham to finish in first place in her age-group.

Jessica was in the leading group of swimmers from the start however the race turned out to be a head to head battle with Kate from the final turning buoy with Jessica holding on to the lead and crossing the finishing line two seconds ahead of Kate, winning the club’s first World Championship gold medal. Jessica also finished as fastest British lady competitor and as third fastest lady from any country across all age-groups.

Lorraine Savagar swimming in her first World Championships also swam well to achieve an overall position of 50th in her age-group.

Mark Partridge, Sean Kinsey and Richard Searle all entered the water as part of the largest age-group of 239 competitors.

All three put in good performances with Sean achieving 14th, Richard 38th and Mark 87th place.