Norma Cahill Dominates At European Masters Championships

0:00But we're turning to swimming now, and Norma Calhull certainly wasn't leaving much gold for anybody else. She came away from the European Master's swimming championships with an incredible five gold medals, winning across both the pool and open water events. So to hear about her remarkable achievement, the races and what keeps her at the top of her game delighted to welcome at Norma Calhull to the studio. Norma, very good morning to you. Good morning. How are you? I am very well. I was half expecting you to come in, you know, like a rapper with loads of bling and five big gold medals around your neck, but it probably probably a little bit sore. Is it a carry on that many? No, no. Life goes on. I think you just come home and get back to normal. It's a so yeah. This is a listener's. We were chatting a lot of air and this is exactly what Norma was like just kind of taking it in her stride. It probably, yeah, you must have let yourself have a moment though. Yeah, you know, individually for each of those events because I was asked you, it was five from five. You'd have 100% success rate. And, you know, after each win, maybe after the first one is probably the sweetest, but you kind of have to keep your focus.

1:01And the more than you win, you must be thinking this is, I don't know what the record is at the master's swimming championship, but five gold medals surely is up there. Yeah, I wouldn't know what the record is to be totally honest with you. But yeah, five, five, I'm very happy. Definitely. And yes, I suppose you do stop after each one and just, you know, reconsider and evaluate. It the whole event was very broken up in terms of I had two days in the pool and then it was off for three days. So you have to try to continue to keep your focus. And there were other people from in us there as well. So obviously I was at the pool to cheer those guys on as well. And was the team Ireland contingent pretty big? Yes, there was a big, big, big group from Ireland there. There was in total, there was about 65. I'd say at least 45 of those were from one club in Dublin. And Erlingas Masters had a very big contingency there. And I guess most countries had big teams because it's across. We were speaking about this, you know, you were competing in the 60 to 64 age group, but there was quite a number of different age categories, wasn't it?

2:04Yeah, yeah, yeah. It starts at 20, but age 20, but most of the 20 year olds still compete as elite athletes. So the biggest cohort probably is from 40 up. Up as far as 80 and 90, you see these 80 and 90 year olds swimming in place. Yeah, 800 meters. Yeah, yeah. I think the European champion is easy to be ready for the rest of the day. Yeah, absolutely amazing to see these people continue to compete and diving and, you know, doing the big events 400 I.M. Which is, it's a very difficult event to do. It's 100 meters of each stroke, including 100 meters of butterfly and these 80 year olds and 90 year olds able to do 400 I.M. And what about, absolutely amazing? What about you, Norm? I mean, what you're like to, because your compete, as I said, in pool and open water events. And that's a busy schedule, even across two weeks, five events. What are you someone who has swam throughout your life? Is it something you picked up or can start doing later in life? No, I've swam on my life from the time that the old original swimming pool was an enus.

3:04Yeah, so I've swam since I've been about nine or 10. Obviously I switched to masters once I was about 35 or 40. And then I was busy with work and children and so on and so forth. And I've retired recently, so I've more time in my hands now to put in more mileage. So that's what I do. Yeah, well, you're putting in the hard yards and they've clearly paid off, but how do you reach a stage where you're competing, you know, for your country on an international competition? A lot of hard work. A lot of hard work. A lot of hours in the pool and because of zoom open water, obviously, I had to try and get out and in the sea or the lake somewhere and then because of the age category. And just the consideration I have to do a lot of gym as well to prevent injury. So that would be a big part as well. So a lot of time and effort. And yeah, a lot of effort and time needed because your competing of five events will that be out of the ordinary at a competition like the European master?

4:10Is there any time you're going to compete in so many events? No, it wouldn't really. It wouldn't. No, because I mean, if you take the time and effort to go to Bratislava, then you're going to do trying to get an event each day. That's, you know, it might be your best event. But if you take the time and effort to go that far and you're there and you're, you know, you might have two or three days off in between your best events, then you might just do another event. Yeah. It's, it might be a bit unusual to do a combination of pool and open water. And most of the time people specialize in either the pool or the open water. But because I swim the longer events in the pool, they transfer equally into the open water. So it would be more difficult if I was doing the sprint events in the pool. Yeah. But because in the pool, I was doing the two foreign eight, the longer events, then the training for those events contributed to what I would have to do in the open water events. Okay. So I mean, you won gold in the 800 meter freestyle. You set a championship record in your age category. You followed that with gold in the 200 meter freestyle, another Irish record.

5:12You took gold in the 400 meters freestyle and listeners would, it's a pricey if I said that again, enormous set of championship record. Then gold in the three kilometer open water. I'm running out of breath here. I mean, and that's only mentioning what you won. Never mind you have to actually compete on all these. Yeah. I suppose the thing is when I went to Bratislava, Bratislava is about medals as opposed to times. And about a month before that, I'd actually raced in Dublin at a new international gala. And at that, I made a European record in the 400. So I knew that my times were in or around European standard, you know. So I didn't expect to do as well in the 200 because it's just a small bit charged for me. I preferred the longer races. But actually my 200 time was only 0.2 after European records. So I'd like to have got that. But yeah, it's good to make championship records. But the medals is really the priority. When you go to a championship event is about the medals.

6:12Yeah, definitely. And as you were winning as each gold failure way, you know, what are the rest of your teammates? And what are perhaps even competitors from other countries? Because I presume a lot of European nations were represented at the championship. Yeah, there was a whole of Europe over there, especially the Germans, because they're very good. And it's adjacent to Bratislava Slovakia. Close enough to Germany. Yes, yes. Like you'd find last year I was in Singapore at the Worlds. That was Top Heavy on Asians and Australians, whereas less Germans, because it's too long distance. Just probably. Yeah, yeah. So I suppose the location of the venue will dictate the population that attends the competition. So yeah, a lot of Germans. And there was one particular girl who swam in Singapore last year. And she made a European record in the two and the four. So I knew she was attending the gala.

7:13So I was interested. I hadn't raised her because I didn't do the two and four in Singapore. I just did the 800 in Singapore and the open water. So I didn't ever actually raise this girl. And so it was interesting to see how... So she obviously was injured, unfortunately, for her because she did very well in Singapore. She won the two and the four and she made two European records. And she was actually her record that I broke in Dublin a month ago. But she must have been injured because she didn't do the two and she was fourth in the 400. So yeah, that's it. You see, people undergo changes and you're dependent on your age. So this is the thing about mass swimming. When you go into an age group, you have your best chance in that age group. So this is my second year in the age group I'm in now. So next year, I'll be three years in the age group, but new younger people will come up into the age group. And for me, it will become very competitive again because it'll make it very difficult for me to be competitive in that age group. But even it's interesting, as you mentioned that and also the German competitor, timing is everything.

8:17Timing is everything, yeah, that's it. Right training, right time, right condition, all of this. And you know then when you're going into an age group, so you've got to pace yourself to be to peak when you're in your first year or two in that age group. Well, you know what you peaked and then some after winning five gold medals, your title to put your feet up, but I assume that is not an option for you for a lady who's retired. You're certainly busy going to tournaments in Singapore and Slovakia and places like that. What's next for you? That's a good question. Yeah, as you said, I'm on two or three weeks off now to try and catch up a little bit. And will you do no swimming in that time? Well, not much, no. I'll do a small bit and it's the outdoor water still warm, so I'd be hoping to get a few sea swims or lake swims, but not a lot in the swimming pool. No, maybe some gym. So what I probably do now is pick a different stroke and I wouldn't be competitive as European standard in backstroke, but it just gives you something else to focus on and maybe better butterfly.

9:25And just do something entirely different. Okay, well, we look forward to seeing how your journey continues. But congratulations again. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Competition, the European Master of Swimming Championships, Norma Kal. Representing NS Masters, Claire and Ireland. Thanks very much for joining us in the studio. Thank you very much.