Jeff Sher – star Masters Swimmer
Swimmer Jeff Sher is one of the Australian contingent’s stars of the 18th Maccabiah. With three golds and a silver already nestled in his luggage, Masters Swimmer Jeff Sher is fast becoming one of Australia’s star performers at this Maccabiah – with more medals still on the offing tomorrow.
Sher opened his account with gold in the 200 free on Monday, before adding gold in the 50 and 400 free in the 50-54 age bracket on Tuesday.
His times were so competitive in the 200 that he would have won the 40-44 and 45-49 years races.
“I was pretty proud of that swim,” Sher said. “It would put me in the third or fourth position in the world for my age”.
50 meter blitz was the second fastest across all the age groups on the day – another top-10 world time – while the 400 meters was not even a race he was originally going to contest until his coach prompted him to do it.
With Australia unable to field a 50-54 years relay team, he joined forces with Brian May, Warren Kotsis and George Lazarus to claim a silver in the under-50 relay.
With the 100 freestyle and 4×50 medley relay to come tomorrow, Sher is on his way to collecting a Phelps-esque swag of medals – not a bad feat for someone who started swimming seriously two years ago.
Sher is a veteran of four Maccabiah Games as a Water Polo player in 1981, 1985, 1989 and 1993, and has once again been touched by the Maccabiah buzz upon his return as a masters athlete.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” he said. “Coming back with the masters has been a great experience it’s been really good being part of this masters team.”
With these fast times under his belt, Sher is thinking of competing at the World Masters Games in Sweden next year. In the meantime, he has the chance tomorrow to claim a rare and coveted clean sweep of all the freestyle events.
In other masters news, Clive Aaron claimed gold in the 50-54 100 metre breaststroke.
Other medals:
Margot Mann – silver in the 60-64 50 free
Warren Kotsis – bronze in the 40-44 400 free
Brian May – silver in the 45-49 200 metre individual medley and 100 metre breaststroke.
Trevor Wainstein – silver in the 55-59 100 breaststroke.
From David Weiner – Maccabiah Media
