Round 1, of the Scottish East District Age Group Championships, was held at the Michael Woods Centre, Glenrothes last weekend, 25/26 November 2023.

Because the remaining two rounds of the Championships  will be held next February and March , the age categories shown below reflect the age that the swimmers will reach during 2024.

Fins had seven swimmers competing, in a total of 18 swims, and Head Coach, Ian Lewis, could not have wished for a much better start to the Championships with two swimmers winning four titles between them, plus there were two silver and four bronze medals won, with fifteen of the eighteen swims producing PBs. All eighteen swims achieved a top 10 finish, and five of the seven swimmers won medals which is very encouraging for the club.

L to R – Adam, Ethan, Eva, Cole, Charlotte, Caleb, Kristin, Irys

 

Round 1 was a distance round, with four events available for both boys and girls, namely the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle plus a 400m individual medley.

The two winning swimmers were Ethan Pate, 13 years’ boys, and Adam Selbie, 14 years’ boys.

Both won the 800m and 1500m freestyle in their respective age category with Adam recording Fins’ largest PB of the weekend, in the 1500m, reducing his previous best by 43.50 seconds

Both boys also won silver medals in their respective 400m freestyle, with Adam having to settle for 2nd behind Ruaidhri Vick, Warrender Baths, while Ethan finished behind  Andrew Lu, Step Rock, who was the only other winner from a Fife club. Ethan also added a bronze medal in his 400m individual medley.

 

Kristin Mackay, 16 years girls, won a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle, recording the third largest PB of 28.47 seconds. Kristin also finished 5th in the 800m freestyle and 6th in the 400m individual medley.

Caleb Gray, 13 tears boys, won a bronze in the 800m freestyle, recording the second largest PB of 28.60 seconds. Caleb also finished in 6th place in the 400m freestyle.

The final bronze medal was won by Lilian Blair, 11/12 years girls in the 400m freestyle.

Just missing out on a medal was Eva Watson, 13 years girls, with a 4th place finish in the 400m individual medley. Eva was also 6th in both the 400m and 800m freestyle.

Irys Blair, 14 years girls, was 9th in the 800m freestyle and 10th in the 400m freestyle.

 

Two other Fins’ swimmers had a swim in the 400m freestyle but were not part of the Championships as they swam in a time trial. The swimmers were Cole Gray, 11/12 boys, and Charlotte Wardlaw, 16 years girls. Unfortunately, their results have not been made available.

 

Club Information

The fifteen PBs did have an impact on Fins’ top 50 rankings, although some are still a bit away from the entry point and, because the gap tends to be a bit larger in the distance events between positions, there were some PBs that meant the swimmer staying in the same position, but getting closer to the spot above them.

 

The highest rank move was achieved by Kristin in the 1500m freestyle, moving from 3rd to 2nd and is now 29 seconds off 1st place, which is less than a second short of the PB she achieved at the weekend.

Kristin also moved from 8th place to 6th place in the 800m freestyle and is 9.55 seconds short of 5th spot.

Adam moves from 12th place to 7th in the 800m freestyle and is 10.55 seconds short of 6th place. Adam moved the most places in the 1500m freestyle from 26th to 18th and sits just 5.28 seconds from 17th place, he also moves from 39th to 36th place in the 400m freestyle and a 5 second PB would take him to 24th.

A 10.06 PB saw Ethan move from 16th to 14th place in the 800m freestyle, which leaves him 21.12 seconds short of 13th.

Also, in the 800m freestyle Caleb moves from 18th to 17th, leaving him a further 8.77 seconds improvement to move to 16th.

Ava moves from 39th to 36th in 800m freestyle with a 9.33 second PB, just three one hundredths of a second away from 35th, but a repeat of her PB would take her to 31st.

There is also one new entry and that is Irys in the 400m freestyle who enters in 49th place, with a time of 5 minutes 10.83 seconds, which means that Jacqui Rafferty drops out of the rankings. Jacqui recorded her time at Grangemouth in March 1990. The new entry time now stands at 5 minutes 11.53 seconds. Irys is just 0.20 seconds short of 48th place but a 5 second PB would secure 44th place.

 

The four swims that are not quite there yet are:

Ethan – 12.57 seconds short on the 400m freestyle, and 13.31 seconds on the 400m individual medley.

Eva – 12.94 seconds short on the 400m freestyle

Caleb – 30.50 seconds short on the 400m freestyle.

 

That was a very successful weekend for all the swimmers, and please bear in mind that the Fins’ top 50 rankings are not age group based. They are the best 50 times in each event since the rankings were introduced. I am not sure of the total number of swimmers that have competed over the years but it must be around 500.

Well done to Yvonne Pate for supplying the photo.

 

Ken White

Club Press Officer

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