The previous report on the Fife Leagues stated, towards the end, – ‘Given the achievements above it is going to be a hard act to follow’
However, that was before the results from the six swimmers who competed in the Lothian distance meet at the Mercat Gait Centre in Prestonpans, were known, and there is really only one word to describe the performances and achievements there, and that is WOW !!!.
The six swimmers competed in eight events, returning a 100% improvement rate, including two first time swims that establishes the swimmer’s PB. All the events were swum as mixed events, with the published results a mixture of both male and female and ages. To establish where a swimmer finished, I extracted the results, in their own swimming age group. Unfortunately, this was not much help in establishing a meaningful reporting order as all the swimmers were either 1st or 2nd.
However, the official Scottish Short Course rankings have now been published so these have been used instead, giving the following results.
Firstly, the times achieved by the swimmers changed their position in the Fins’ top 50 all-time rankings, with two exceptions, one falling short by 8 seconds and one very unlucky swimmer who had a ‘no change’ situation.
Millie Whytock, 12 years female, swam in the 800m freestyle for the first time, finishing as 1st 12 year old, and is now ranked 2nd in the 12 years female Scottish rankings, with a time of 10 minutes 40.66 seconds, behind Anglo Scot, Emmeline Eales of Kingston Royals, Millie enters the Fins’ rankings in 39th place, and as a result we lose Kirsty Wilson who set her time at Glenrothes in October 2009.
Lilian Blair, 13 years female, had two swims, finishing 1st in her 400m individual medley and 2nd in the 800m freestyle. This means that in the 13 years female Scottish rankings Lilian is ranked 3rd in the 400m individual medley, behind Megan Ferris of Cumbernauld and Emily Taylor of Lanark. and 7th in the 600m freestyle.
Lilian also had the largest move up the rankings in the Fins rankings from 35th to 19th in the 400m individual medley with an excellent PB of 27.66, in a time of 5 minutes 30,35 seconds. Lilian previous best time was set in January this year. In her 800m freestyle Lilian enter the rankings in 22nd place, meaning that we lose Angela Wilson who set her time at Glenrothes in 2009.
Kristin Mackay, 17 years female, who was also 1st in her age group is ranked 4th in Scotland, for the 800m freestyle just 2.85 seconds behind Alice Perry of Warrender Baths in 3rd place. Kristin’s time was 9 minutes 34.38 seconds, with a 9.63 second PB. Unfortunately, Kristin was the unlucky swimmer in terms of Fins’ rankings and remains in 6th place but has closed the gap on Sarah Chapman, in 5th place to just 0.32 seconds.
Cole Gray, 13 years male, had two swims, finishing 1st in his 400m individual medley and 2nd in his 800m freestyle. In terms of the 13 years male Scottish rankings Cole is ranked 11th in the 800m freestyle and 15th in the 400m individual medley. In the Fins’ all-time rankings, Cole moves from 23rd to 15th in the 800m freestyle, in a time of10 minutes 23.33 seconds, recording the largest Fins;’ PB of 1 minute 46.20 seconds. Although he won his 400m individual medley Cole is the swimmer who fell short of the Fins’ rankings by 8 seconds, so perhaps next time. The entry time required for Fins’ 800m freestyle, male, is shown below, but the time required for the male 400m individual medley now stands at 5 minutes 34.73 seconds.
Caleb Gray, 14 years male, was 2nd in the 800m freestyle, and he lies 15th in the 14 years Scottish rankings. In the Fins’ rankings, Caleb’s time of 10 minutes 4.72 seconds was a 33.05 second PB and moves him from 18th to 14th in the rankings.
This completes all the changes to the male 800m freestyle and the entry time for this event, in the Fins’ rankings is any time. When a first time swimmer posts a time he will be added to the rankings. Despite the rankings starting to firm up in 1987, there are still only 23 times recorded.
The remaining swimmer was Irys Blair, 15 years female, who was 2nd in the 400m individual medley, and this places her 23rd in the Scottish rankings. In the Fins rankings, Irys’ time of 5 minutes 42.75 seconds, produced a 6.11 second PB, which in turn moves her up the rankings from 31st to 27th. now that all the times have been recorded the time required to enter the 400m individual medley, female is 6 minutes 23.79 seconds.
The performances and achievements at the Lothian Distance Meet were outstanding and, it would appear that there is a core of potential distance swimmers developing at Fins, and great to see all six swimmers in the top 25 Scottish Rankings.
I know that the improvements made so far this year have been excellent and the swimmers seem to just keep on going. However, based on experience, there needs to be a note of caution here, and it has happened in the past, but please do not cut back on the hard work that you are doing in training.
Swimmers, for various reasons, develop at different rates and when you are in the top 25 you need to keep going because there is always someone who is likely to challenge. Millie is a good example of this, swimming an event for the first time and coming from nowhere to claim 2nd spot in the rankings.
How do you try to ensure this doesn’t happen to you, especially the freestylers. First, please do not neglect the other strokes and please do some speed work because as you develop you will need to go faster and this is not just about thrashing the water faster, it is all about maintaining the correct technique. If you look where you are at present both in respect to the Scottish rankings and the Fins rankings, which can be more difficult as there is no age groups involved. There is still a lot of improvement required. You are doing this now so please keep up the good work.
Addition Information
Because of illness, the Hearts Fast Meet was missed. However, some of the times recorded at the meet are still PBs for some of the swimmers and they do affect the Fins Rankings, so these have been highlighted below. There will be no report as the meet took place in February.
There were six swims that changed the top 50 all time Fins’ rankings, two improvements and four new entries so, in no particular order they were –
Kristin Mackay, 100m breaststroke, in a time of 1minute, 21.30 seconds, moves from 16th to 15th. Kristins time in the 200m butterfly of 2 minutes30.80 seconds still stands and this moves her from 9th to 3rd,
Irys Blair, enters the rankings for the 100m freestyle in 34th place with a time of 1 minute 5.08 seconds and as a result we lose Lindsay White, life member, who set her time at Dalry away back in 1985. The time now required for entry is 1 minute 6.25 seconds.
Lilian Blair, enters the rankings in 49th place in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2 minutes 41.44 seconds, and the swimmer moving out on this occasion is Angela Bathgate, who set her time at Kirkcaldy in March 1995. The time required to enter the 200m backstroke rankings now stands at 2 minutes 41.46 seconds. Very close at the bottom.
Cole Gray, enters the 200m butterfly rankings in 46th place with a time of 3 minutes 2.17 seconds, and in turn out goes Nicky Grant who set his time at Whitburn in March 1995. The entry time is now 3 minutes 16.52 seconds.
And the final entry comes from Millie Whytock, who recorded a time of 1 minute 16.19 seconds in the 100m backstroke, and enters her in 46th place. This time we lose one of our current swimmers, Kristin Mackay, who set her time at the Dunedin Challenge in September 2023. The time now required for entry is 1 minute 16.72 seconds.
Ken White