Back row l-r: Adam Selbie, Erin Taylor, Charlotte Wardlaw, Middle l–r: Irys Blair and Jennifer Gordon,
Front row l-r: Eva Watson, Caleb Gray, and Ethan Pate.

The third and final round of the Scottish East District Championships were held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool last Saturday and Sunday. The meet was a long course event and covered 100m in the four individual strokes, the 200m individual medley and two 4x50m relays.

 

Fins had ten swimmers competing in 31 individual swims plus two relays and in relative terms it can only be described as an excellent weekend, winning three silver and one bronze medal and 14 individual finalist, plus two relays, but more importantly 27 PBs.

 

Top swimmer for Fins was Erin Taylor who won silver in both the breaststroke and individual medley. In the breaststroke Erin, who is classed as an 18 year old, and swimming in the 17 years and over category, was beaten by 22 year old Katie Robertson of Edinburgh University swim team, but swam her second fasted long course time just missing out on her PB by 0.17 seconds.

Similarly, in the individual medley it was a 19 year old Edinburgh University swimmer who got the touch over Erin.

Erin also finished 17th in the freestyle from a field of 33 swimmers.

 

The remaining two medals were won by Adam Selbie, 13 years boys, with a silver in the backstroke, which turned out to be a Fife battle where he was just touched out by Alex Holmes of Glenrothes by 0,54 seconds. More pleasing was that Adam recoded a 3.19 second PB in the event.

Adam’s bronze came in the breaststroke but he recoded the second largest PB, for Fins’ swimmers, beating his previous best by 12.59 seconds.

 

The other four finalists were:

Ethan Pate, 11/12 boys, who was 4th in the individual medley, 5th in both the butterfly and freestyle, and 6th in the breaststroke. Ethan was also 2nd reserve (10th) for the final of the backstroke.

Irys Blair, 13 girls, was 4th in the backstroke, 6th in the individual medley and 7th in the freestyle. Irys also finished 11th in the butterfly and 16th in the breaststroke.

Caleb Gray, 11/12 boys, was 5th in the individual medley, 6th in the butterfly, 7th in the freestyle, 2nd reserve for the final of the breaststroke, and finished 11th in the backstroke.

Lilian Blair 11/12 girls, was 8th in the breaststroke, 2nd reserve for the backstroke final and finished 13th in the freestyle.

 

Eva Watson, 11/12 girls, was 2nd reserve for the butterfly final and finished 19th in the breaststroke.

Charlotte Wardlaw, 15 girls; 18th –100m breaststroke

Jennifer Gordon, 17/O girls; 26th – 100m butterfly

Grace Wilson, 16, girls. 32nd – 100m freestyle

Fins finished 4th in both the 11/12 years Mixed 4x50m medley and freestyle relays, and the teams were the same for both and comprised Eva Watson, Lilian Blair, Caleb Gray and Ethan Pate.

 

In addition to Adam there was no doubt who was the most improved swimmer, and that was Irys Blair who achieved the following reductions – 22.13 seconds off her individual medley, 9.93 seconds off the butterfly, 9.50 seconds off the breaststroke, and 9.39 seconds off the backstroke.

Another PB worthy of note was from Caleb Gray who reduced his backstroke by 11.42 seconds.

 

In terms of long course rankings there was quite a bit of movement and several entries, as it continues to build towards the top 50. There were also several no change situations even for some swimmers who recorded a PB.

The movement to the highest position in the rankings was from Adam who moves from 16th to 12th in the 100m butterfly, 16th to 14th in the 100m backstroke, 18th to 17th in the 200m individual medley, and 21st to 19th in the 100m freestyle.

The largest movement was from Irys who moved from 31st to 16th in the 100m backstroke, 32nd to 18th in the 100m freestyle, 29th to 20th in the 200m individual medley, 25th to 23 in the 100m butterfly, and 30th to 28th in the 100m breaststroke.

With a 9 place improvement in her only swim was Grace who moved from 25th to 16th in the 100m freestyle.

The highest entry, came from Caleb who entered the 100m butterfly in 18th place and a further two entries at 20th in both the 200m individual medley and the 100m breaststroke, and had another entry at 21st in the 100m backstroke.

Ethan, 21st to 20th – 100m backstroke

Charlotte, 26th to 21st – 100m breaststroke

Eva, entered at 28th – 50m backstroke and 29th – 50m freestyle, both as first leg in the relays, and 32nd – 100m breaststroke

Lilian entered at 33rd in both the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.

 

Ken White,
Club Press Officer