They did it again. Lenore and Forbes Sonntag broke more national masters swimming records at Moana Pool this week.
The couple have lost count of how many records they have broken in their long careers at the pool.
Lenore (74) added four more individual records to her list in the women's aged 74-79 grade: 100m (1min 57.24sec), 200m (4min 19.58sec) individual medley, 50m butterfly (57.01sec) and 100m freestyle (1min 36.82sec).
Forbes was part of two Dunedin Masters Swimming Club relay teams. In the men's aged 240 to 279 years 4x 50m medley relay the mark is now 2min 24.87sec. The other team members were Stephen Clarke, Mark Johnson and Steve Prescott.
In the mixed 120 to 159 age-group he was joined by his wife, Anne Gray and Prescott for the mixed freestyle relay. The time was 2min 18sec.
Lenore Sonntag (nee Godfrey) was an elite Otago swimmer in her youth but gave up competitive swimming when she married Forbes.
She returned to the pool at the age of 30 and has been inspired to keep training since the masters swimming competition started 32 years ago.
Texan Phil Krueger (66) made his two-yearly pilgrimage to Dunedin for the Masters Games for the seventh time and won four swimming gold medals in the men's 65 to 69 grade.
He won the 50m (31.56sec), 100m (1min 9.80sec) and 400m (5min 51.88sec) freestyle and the 100m individual medley (1min 18.75sec). He is registered with the Napier club and the 400m freestyle and 100m individual medley were both New Zealand Masters records.
He comes to New Zealand each year and rents a house in Napier for two months as he travels to different parts of the country with wife Judith.
Brisbane's Brian Fothergill (72) won four swimming gold medals: 100m (1min 55.02sec) and 200m (4min 08.50sec) breaststroke, 100m (1min 54.90sec) and 200m (4min 14.04sec) individual medley.
When he first competed in the 100m individual medley at Dunedin in 2002 he clocked 2min 15sec. He improved his time by 21sec this week.
Fothergill shifted from his home town of Wanganui to Brisbane in 1978 and owned a comic shop for the next 30 years.
He had high blood pressure and suffered from diabetes and bone degeneration.
"Everything is back to normal now," he said.
Gina Stephens, from Paeroa in the Thames Valley, recovered from a bite by a white-tailed spider to win four gold medals in the women's 65 to 69 class.
She won the 50m freestyle (43.96sec) and three backstroke events - 50m (54.33sec), 100m (2min 00.34sec) and 200m (4min 18.78sec).
The spider crawled into her bed on a cold night in September and bit her on the leg. She was put on a dose of antibiotics and it was touch and go whether she would recover in time for the Games.
"I was down in the dumps for a few weeks," Stephens said.
"But I was on top of the world when I won two gold medals tonight."
Thirteen members from the Twin Towns Masters Club on the Queensland Gold Coast competed in the swimming events.
They stood out by wearing the club yellow swimming cap with Twin Towns emblazoned on it.
Their best performance came in the women's 75 to 79 400m freestyle won by Janet Henry (78) in 10min 21.13sec from club-mate Delphine Margetts (79) in 11min 30.75sec.
