LONDONDERRY swimmer Bill Devenish left a sea of international competitors in his wake when he stormed down the pool to take out two gold medals at the Masters World Championships in Perth recently.
The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist, 58, smashed the 200m and 400m Australian Masters records, claiming both world titles in the 55-59 year age group.
He also won bronze in the 100m freestyle.
As a teenager Devenish was a gun in the pool, winning at state and national level in freestyle events, with his success culminating in two relay gold medals and an individual bronze at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
“It was an exciting time, but when you’re young, you don’t realise it as much,” he said.
“I appreciate what it meant a lot more now.”
Devenish retired from swimming aged 21, taking up a job in a bank, labouring and coaching swimming before relocating to Mudgee to become a farmer.
He made his way back to Sydney in 1989, driving a semi-trailer for seven years before joining Parramatta Council in 1996 and moving to Londonderry in 2000.
Devenish had spent nearly 30 years out of the pool when a health crisis forced him to dig out the togs once more.
“I’d been driving the trucks for a few years and sitting and eating too much,” he said.
“I was overweight and about to have a heart attack.
“I changed my job and took up swimming again – I didn’t want to win anything, I just wanted to improve my health and fitness.
“I never thought I’d get back to what I was, back to competitive swimming – after 30 years out of the pool I figured it would just be too hard.”
Devenish got back in the pool in 2000, gradually changing his lifestyle and dropping the kilos, but it wasn’t until 2006 he decided to “make an effort” to get back into competitive swimming.
Once he began to train, his competitive streak re-ignited, and he joined Masters Swimming Australia, the national organisation dedicated to adult swimmers aged 20 and above.
Devenish focused his attention on the Masters World Championships, increasing his training from six sessions a week to nine, and covering more than 50km in the pool.
Competing in the 55-59 years category, Devenish took out the 200m and 400m freestyle and set new Australian records.
“The 200m freestyle was my pet event, so I was so pleased to take that out with a time of 2:09, which was only 11/2 seconds outside the Masters world record,” he said.
Admitting he’s been hit with the competitive bug once again, Devenish is now turning his attention to the next world championships in Sweden in 2010.
“I used to swim the 200m freestyle in under two minutes when I was young – I’d love to get my time down to about 2:04,” he said.