DEREK Booth set the gold standard as Halton Swimming Club's Masters Team competed for a third successive year in the Czech Republic and again gave a great account of themselves.
Also taking part in the international meeting were teams from the host country including Halton's twin town Usti, Prague (Neptune and Bohemians) and Brno.
Germany was also well represented by clubs from Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg while Austria, Poland, Russia and Slovakia also had clubs taking part.
Booth spearheaded Halton's 40-medal haul with five golds, two silvers and two bronze.
Swimming in the 55-59 year group, he proved age is no barrier to excellence and after victory at 100m freestyle, he launched what turned out to be a great backstroke event for the Halton team.
His second gold for 100m back was accompanied by wins for Ray Marshall, Terrina Legett and Nikki Dand while Mark Higgins took silver.
Booth's other first places came in the 50m sprints where he took the butterfly, freestyle and back-stroke titles.
Christine Keane shone for the ladies' team with two great gold medals in the tough 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle events.
The gutsy Runcorn swimmer
also took silver for 200m IM.
Stephen Kilgannon, 21, led a strong men's breaststroke team, winning gold for 100m and 50m.
Andrew Jones took silver in both these disciplines while bronze medals went to Brian Higgins and Kevin Comer for 100m and Derek Booth and Brian Higgns over 50m.
Halton's relay teams finished with silver (combined age over 100 years) and bronze (combined age over 200 years) in the free-style events and 3rd in the medley (combined age over 160).
Linda Ainsworth gave a good performance in the latter event to snatch the medal with a great freestyle leg.
This gala remains the highlight of Halton Masters' year and would not be possible without the help of Halton's town-twinning team.
The ties are now strong between the twin towns and it is hoped to bring the Usti team to Halton in 2008 for the masters 10-year celebration event.
