Long rest between medals for Canadian swimmer

Oct 12, 2009, 9:02 GMT

   Sydney - Canada's Noel Morrow won a second gold medal Monday in the same Sydney swimming pool where she won her first 70 years ago.

   'I was a bit nervous to start with but I was fine once I started swimming,' 90-year-old Morrow said after her victory in the 100 metres backstroke at the harbourside North Sydney pool.

'I wasn't sure I would even complete the race but I got there in the end.'

   Morrow, who was a member of the winning freestyle relay squad at the 1938 British Empire Games, is one of 200 elite-level champions competing in the World Masters Games.

   She was upstaged in the picturesque pool nestled beside the famous Harbour Bridge by 99-year-old Margot Bates. The New Zealander, who trains three times a week, is on a mission to amass 200 age-category gold medals before she retires from competition.

   Bates finished last, three minutes behind Morrow, but won her 188th gold medal because she was the only competitor in her age bracket.

   Bates has four more individual events and is the anchor in the Recycled Teenagers, an over-90s relay team.

   'I'm as fit as a fiddle - any fitter and I would be dangerous,' Bates said after lapping a pool where more world records have been set than any other.

'A lot of people my age are either in hospitals or nursing homes. I'm 99, you know - 99 not out.'

   More than 28,000 competitors are gathered in Sydney for the nine-day event, 8,500 of them from overseas. Ninety-five countries are represented.