Fins’ swimmers recorded another excellent weekend when eighteen of them competed at the Scottish East District Age Group Championship held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh. This was a long course event using the 50m pool format. The competition ran from Friday Evening through to Sunday Evening and five of the swimmers gained 12 medals which included 2 gold, six silver, and 4 bronze medals. An additional five swimmer brought the total of top ten finishes achieved to 26.

Head Coach, Ian Lewis, and Senior Coach Iain Macdonald, who coach the Senior Squad and Junior Squad respectively both had swimmers competing and both were very pleased with the performances from the swimmers.

There was a very large entry with both the male and female 17 and over age group proving very difficult. This age group was dominated mainly by the Edinburgh University Swim Team which included a number of the Scottish Commonwealth Games Swim Team members who are due to head out to Australia in just over 4 weeks’ time.

Top performance by a Fins’ swimmer was once again 15 year old Caitlyn Dodds, who not only added two more District Age Group Titles to her collection but also recorded two Fins’ Club records. Caitlyn swims in the 16 girls age group although she doesn’t reach her 16th birthday until almost the end of December.
Her Championship Titles were in the 50m and 100m Backstroke events and in the 50m her time of 31.22 seconds reduced her own previous record by 0.36 seconds, and in the 100m her time of 1 min. 7.44 seconds reduced her own previous record by 0.55 seconds. These times rank Caitlyn in 3rd place in Scotland both as a current 15 year old and as a 16 year old on 31 December 2018. Caitlyn also just missed out on a further two titles, gaining the silver medal in both the 50m and 100m Butterfly, and beaten on both occasions by Eilidh Redpath, Midlothian. She also won a bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle, finished 4th in the 200m Individual Medley and 5th in the 100m Freestyle.

Also doing well once again was Theo Goodfellow, 16 years boys, who gained two silver medals in the 50m and 100m Breaststroke. Theo also qualified for the final of the 200m Individual Medley but did not swim.

A silver medal was won by Neža Dolenc-Luznar, 14 years girls, in the 100m Butterfly. Neža also won a bronze medal in the 50m Butterfly, was 5th in the 100m Freestyle and 7th in the 50m Freestyle.
The remaining silver medal was won by Sophie Juskowiak, 13 years girls, in the 100m Breaststroke. Sophie finished 5th in the 50m Breaststroke, 9th in the 200m Individual Medley and 10th in the 50m Butterfly.

The final two bronze medals were both won by Mark Scott, 11/12 years boys, in the 50m and 100m Freestyle. Mark also finished 5th in the 50m Butterfly, 8th in the 100m Breaststroke and 10th in the 50m Breaststroke.

The remaining top ten placings were achieved by:
Esme Lee, 11/12 girls, 4th in both the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Backstroke; 5th – 200m Individual Medley; 7th – 50m Backstroke; and 10th – 100m Butterfly.
Ben Lewis, 14 boys, – 5th in both the 50 Butterfly and 100m Freestyle. He also qualified in 8th place for the final of the 100m Backstroke, but did not swim.
Catherine Comrie, 17/O girls, 6th – 50m Breaststroke; 7th – 100m Breaststroke; 9th – 200m Individual Medley.
Stephanie Strang, 17/O girls, 7th in both 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle; 8th – 50m Backstroke.
Michael Strang, 15 boys, 10th – 100m Butterfly.

Fins’ swimmers again recorded a vey good improvement rate, especially at this level of swimming, of 69%.
The top improvement came from Esme Lee who reduced her 100m Breaststroke time by 6.99 seconds and just missed out on the bronze medal by just 0.23 seconds.
Next was Ben Lewis who reduced his 100m Backstroke time, in the heat, by 5.98 seconds, and the third top improvement came from Sophie Juskowiak who reduced her 100m Breaststroke by 4.56 seconds.

The remaining eight swimmers who qualified for the Championship were – Eireann Comrie (15), Arran Stowe (17/O), Claire Thomson (17/O), Erin O’Connor (15), Callum MacDonald (17/O), Peter Strong (16), Sam Lewis (17/O), and Euan Pate (17/O).