Fins Competitive Swim Club
Scottish National Open Water Swimming Championships
The venue for the 2026 Scottish National Open Water Swimming Championships was once again the Galloway Activity Centre, Loch Ken, Dumfries and Galloway, and the small group of five Fins’ swimmers certainly excelled, winning a gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
The championships also double as a qualifier for the Englis Open Water Swimming Championships to be held in Sheffield later in the month and three of the five swimmers have qualified for at least one swim in Sheffield, with one swimmer being too young.
The Fins’ swimmers ranged in ages from 12 years to 15 years meaning that they competed in a single year age group for the 12 year olds, and 13/14 years and 15/16 years for the remaining swimmers.
Qualification for Sheffield for Fins’ swimmers were for the 13, 14, and 15 years.
Elliot Blair, 12 years male, won the gold medal in the 2K event and is now the Scottish National Open Water Champion in the 12 years 2K male event.
Millie Whytock, 13 years female, won a silver and a bronze medal. Her silver medal came in the 13/14 years 2K finishing behand Esmay A Anderson of the University of Aberdeen performance squad. As Esmay is 14 years, Millie qualifies for Sheffield as the fastest Scot in the 13 years group.
In the overall 2K event, which consisted of 41 swimmers ranging from 13 years to 65 years, Millie finished a very creditable 6th.
Millie’s bronze medal was won in the !K event, finishing again behind Esmay Anderson and also Emmaline Eagles of Guilford City Swimming Club
In the overall 1K event Millie was 4th out of 25 swimmers ranging from 12 to 47 years, this was not a qualifying event for Sheffield.
Lilian Blair, 14 years female, won the remaining bronze medal in the 5K event, Lillian finished behind Esmay Anderson and Emmaline Eagles, but as such qualifies for Sheffield.
Overall, Lilian finished 15th out 0f 28 swimmers.
Caleb Gray, 15 years male, did not win any medals but has qualified as 2nd Scot for Sheffield in three events.
In his 2K swim Caleb finished 6th in the 15/16 years age group but four of the six swimmers were 16 years old and the only 15 year old ahead of him was Lewis Morgan, University of Aberdeen performance squad. The gap between them was 1minute 52 seconds.
Overall, Caleb was 9th of 30 swimmers.
In his 5K swim Caleb again finished 6th in the 15/16 years age group but the first four swimmers this time were all 16 years old and this time the 15 year old ahead of him was Blair Tetlow of Garioch, with a much smaller gap of Just 6 seconds.
Overall, Caleb finished 12th of 18 swimmers.
Caleb’s third event was a 10K event open to all age groups and he finished in 5th place from 7 swimmers. Again, he was the second fastest 15 year old behind Blair Tetlow. This time the gap was 1 minute 9 seconds, which in a 10K can certainly be overcome.
This was a gruelling but successful weekend for Caleb and his time for the 10K of 2 hours 3 minutes and 20 seconds was 17 minutes faster than his anticipated time.
Fins remaining swimmer was Sadie Paton, 14 years female, and this was her first open water event at this level. Sadie finished 16th in the 13/14 years age group, and overall was 33rd of the 41 simmers.
