East District Summer Sizzler

Twelve Fins’ swimmers made the Journey to the Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, on Saturday 24 June 2023, to participate in the Scottish East District Summer Sizzler.

 

No medals were on offer as this meet was to provide the swimmers the opportunity to compete in a long course event in the hope of being able to qualify for future events, at District level or above. There was a very large entry for the meet and East District swimmers were joined by those from Midlands District on this occasion.

 

Fins’ swimmers competed in a total of 57 individual swims plus two relay events, with 35 swims achieving a PB. The swimmers achieved one – 1st place, four – 2^nd places, and five – 3^rd places, plus a further thirteen swims finishing in the top 10 placings.

 

There was also a win in the 4 x 50m freestyle relay, and a 2^nd place in the 4 x 50m medley relay, for the 11/12 years age group.

 

Top swimmer for Fins was Ethan Pate, 11/12 boys who was Fins only winner and that was in the 100m butterfly. In addition, Ethan was 2^nd in both the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle. He also had four 5^th placings and one 8th placing. The four 5^th places were achieved in 50m and 100m breaststroke, plus the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke. His 8^th place was in the 100m backstroke.

 

Lilian Blair, 11/12 girls had a 2^nd and 3^rd placing, the 2^nd was in her 50m breaststroke and 3^rd in the 50m backstroke. Lilian’s other swims saw her finish 5^th in the 100m breaststroke; 7^th – 100m backstroke; 9^th – 50m freestyle; 11^th – 100m freestyle; and 17^th – 100m butterfly. This was good for a swimmer who is 11 this year  and she was fastest 11 year old in three of the above events, 2^nd fastest in three events and 4^th in the remaining event.

 

Caleb Gray also had a 2^nd and 3^rd place finishes with the 2^nd place in his 100m butterfly, and 3^rd – 100m freestyle. Caleb had six other swims finishing 9^th – 100m backstroke; 11^th in both the 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke; 12^th – 50m freestyle; 13^th – 50m breaststroke; and 14^th – 50m butterfly.

 

 

Three swimmers gained a 3^rd place and they were:

Jennifer Gordon, 17/O girls, 3^rd – 100m freestyle; 4^th – 50m freestyle

Grace Wilson, 15/16 girls, 3^rd – 50m freestyle; 8^th – 100m freestyle, and

Charlotte Wardlaw, 15/16 girls, 50m breaststroke (fastest 15 year old); 16^th – 100m breaststroke; 35^th – 100m freestyle; and 39^th – 50m freestyle.

 

One other swimmer had finishes in the top 10 and that was Irys Blair, 13/14 girls, who finished 5^th in the 100m backstroke (fastest 13 year old); 7^th – 100m butterfly; 13^th in both the 50m and 100m freestyle; 17^th – 50m butterfly; 19^th – 100m breaststroke; and 27^th – 50m breaststroke.

 

The remaining swimmers were:

Eva Watson, 11/12 girls, 13^th – 100m butterfly; 23^rd – 50m butterfly; 16^th – 100m freestyle; 28^th – 50m freestyle; and 32^nd – 50m backstroke

Cole Gray, 11/12 boys, 16^th – 50m butterfly; 19^th – 50m breaststroke; 20^th – 50m freestyle.

Wiktor Bak, 15/16 boys, 16^th – 50m butterfly; 22^nd – 50m breaststroke; 24^th – 50m backstroke; 32^nd – 50m freestyle

Alastair Gordon, 15/16 boys, 21^st – 50m butterfly; 24^th – 50m breaststroke; 34^th – 50m freestyle

Abby Morris, 15/16 girls, 29^th – 50m butterfly; 36^th – 50m freestyle; and 38^th – 50m freestyle.

 

The Fins 4 x 50m mixed (2 boys and 2 girls) freestyle relay team of Lilian Blair, Eva Watson, Caleb Gray, and Ethan Pate just managed to touch out Heart of Midlothian by just under a second to win the event.

 

In the equivalent medley relay, the team of Eva, Lilian, Ethan, and Caleb, just lost out to Warrender Baths Club to finish in 2^nd place.

 

Because it was a sprint event at a reasonably high standard. The PBs were a bit more modest, with the top three improvement for Fins coming from:

Abby Morris, 15/16 girls, who reduced her 50m butterfly by 5.02 seconds,

Charlotte Wardlaw, 15/16 girls, who improved her 100m freestyle by 4.01 seconds, and,

Ethen Pate who dropped his 50m butterfly time by 2.76 seconds.

 

Because the long course top 50 rankings are still at the formative stages most swims had an effect. Some moved up, some moved down, some moved down even though the swimmer recorded a PB, and some remained in the same position, again even though the swimmer achieved a PB.

The top four moves to the highest rankings were:

Grace, who moved from 16^th to 15^th in the 100m freestyle, with a 0.39 second PB

Lillian, who moved from 22^nd to 19^th in the 50m breaststroke, with a 2.51 second PB, and Lilian again, who moved from 27^th to 25^th in the 50m backstroke, with a 1.77 second PB, and

Abby, who moved from 26^th to 25^th in the 50m butterfly, with a 5.02 second PB.

 

The four highest entries came from:

Charlotte, who enters the 50m breaststroke in 11^th place with a time of 40.62 seconds

Wiktor, who enters the 50m backstroke in 14^th place and the 50m breaststroke in 15^th place, with times of 37.51 seconds and 43.13 seconds respectively, and

Alastair, who enters the 50m breaststroke in 16^th place with a time of 44.87 seconds.

 

Ken White

Club Press Officer