Atkinsons are topsss on the water and in it!

9:20am Wednesday 14th November 2001

Some families have one sporting star, but not the Atkinson family from Wilmington they have two!

But in both cases water is the vital element. One in it and one on it.

Marie Atkinson was in outstanding form at the ASA

Masters' National Swimming Championships held in the Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

Competing in the 25-29 years age group, she showed her freestyle dominance taking gold and national titles in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,500-metre freestyle events. She was the only woman at the champ-ionships to go under 60 seconds in the 100m freestyle and under 2 minutes 10 seconds in the 200m freestyle, two major swimming time barriers.

Marie (pictured left) set new British records in all but the 400-metre freestyle, which she only narrowly missed.

Her lifetime bests in the 800 and 1,500 set not only new British records but European records too, taking nine seconds off the previous British best and seven off the European record in the 800.

Amazingly, Marie sliced a staggering 41 seconds off both British and European bests in the 1,500 in a time which now ranks her fourth-fastest female in Britain!

Marie was in surprisingly good form following her recent return from Los Angeles, where she was representing Great Britain as part of a long-distance relay team, which included former Olympic champ- ion Duncan Goodhew.

The event, which was a six-swimmer, 38-mile relay from Catalina Island to Santa Monica “Baywatch” Beach, was in aid of Multiple Sclerosis.

Britain's squad was victorious over six other national teams including America, Canada and Germany. But these were not the only successes in the Atkinson household as Marie's younger brother Keith was also in action but on the water rather than in it!

Keith is one of Britain's top wind-surfers and was braving the elements in Weymouth or to be more precise, the Portland Sailing Academy at Portland Harbour, which was the new venue for the UKWA annual prizegiving and National Inland Championship event.

Following electrical storms on Friday night, Saturday turned out to be a completely windless autumn day which had the competitors kicking their heels all day.

On Saturday evening there was the annual dinner and prizegiving, and Keith was there to collect a well-deserved second-place trophy in the UKWA Silver Formula Fleet National Championship.

Only a few points separated Keith from arch-rival and friend Harry Solven when they competed in the last of the six-race series at Bridlington.

Keith, in his first season on Formula equipment, had led the championship early on but by mid-season Solven had crept ahead.

In Rome, at the World Youth and Masters in August, Keith managed a creditable 18th, one place ahead of Solven.

However, despite Keith beating him in Rome, Solven's previous year of sailing in the Formula fleet gave him the advantage and enabled him to win at Bridlington and secure this year's title.

Sunday dawned at Portland as light winds began to build and by lunchtime the Formula fleet were on the water.

Keith who is sponsored by NEILPRYDE and JP, was using the new 12.2m RS1 from the NEILPRYDE camp, which uses a massive 580cm X7 mast and requires a special boom extension for the already large NEILPRYDE 288 race-boom.

The first race was Keith's, finishing a clearly ahead of all the Formula fleets. In the second race Keith, like some other competitors, experienced problems with seaweed on the 70cm fin on his board.

This slowed him into third, however the combined results were sufficient to give him the National Inland UKWA Formula Silver Fleet Champion-ship title.