Fife Championships 2023 plus Geordie Wotherspoon Trophy – November 2023

A total of 39 Fins’ swimmers, were at the Michael Woods Centre in Glenrothes last Sunday to compete in the Fife Championships and the Geordie Wotherspoon Trophy, 31  in the Championships and 8 in the Geordie Wotherspoon.

The swimmers contested a total of 123 swims, 115 and 8 in the respective competitions.

In the Championships, there were 84 PBs recorded giving a 73% improvement rate, and considering it was a sprint event, a 100m individual medley plus 50m in each of the four individual strokes, there were some very impressive PBs and many of the swims that did not return a PB were hundredths or tenths short.

Seven of the swimmers made an impact on the club top 50 rankings, with one more coming close.

 

The swimmers achieved 11 gold, 3 silver, and 9 bronze medals, with a further 26 swims achieving a top 10 placing, which is good considering that many of the swimmers were in the ‘wrong’ side of a two or four year age group.

 

Top Fins’ swimmer, in terms of achievement, was 11 year old Lilian Blair, 8 to 11 years girls, who won all five events. Lilian was the only swimmer, male or female, to achieve this. While she is not in the all-time Fins’ top 50 rankings Lilian is not far away in all five events being just 1.41 seconds off the backstroke, 1.46 seconds off the breaststroke, 1.77 seconds off the freestyle, 2.35 seconds off the butterfly and 5.13 seconds off the individual medley. The medley time may seem a bit further away but if Lilian were to repeat her PB of 5.57 seconds from Sunday she would be there. Pretty good going for an 11year old.

 

Top swimmer in terms of performance was 18 year old Erin Taylor, 16 and over girls, who was back in record breaking form when winning the 100m individual medley in a new club record time of 1 minute 7.41 seconds. This beat the previous record, set by Caitlyn Dodds at the Glenrothes Spring Meet in March 2018, by 0.27 seconds.

Erin also won gold in the breaststroke and butterfly and finished 4^th in the backstroke.

 

Adam Selbie, 12/13 years boys won two gold medals in the individual medley and butterfly, plus two silver medals in the backstroke and breaststroke, and a bronze medal in the freestyle. In the individual medley Adam recorded a 4.19 second PB which promotes him from 50^th to 38^th in the club top 50 rankings. A 1.87 second PB in the breaststroke left Adam just one hundredth of a second away from the top 50 rankings.

 

The final championship gold was won by another young swimmer, 11years old Jack Campbell, 8 to 11 years boys, who won the butterfly. Jack also won two bronze medals in the backstroke and freestyle, and had two 5^th placings in the breaststroke and individual medley.

 

Irys Blair, 12/13 girls won the remaining silver medal in the 50m backstroke. Irys also won a bronze medal in the freestyle, and finished 5^th in both the individual medley and butterfly, and was 11^th in the breaststroke.

A 0.31 second PB in her backstroke meant that Irys moved up the top 50 rankings from 47^th to 44^th, and 1.69 second PB in the individual medley means that Irys is just short of the rankings by 0.22 seconds.

 

Another young swimmer, 11 years old Cole Gray, 8 to 11 years boys, won three bronze medals in the individual medley, breaststroke, and butterfly. Cole also finished 4^th in the backstroke and 5^th in the freestyle.

Kristin Mackay, 14/15 girls, won two bronze medals in individual medley and breaststroke. Kristin was also 4^th in the butterfly, 5^th in the backstroke and 7^th in the freestyle. Kristin recorded an 8.40 second PB in the individual medley, which was the 7^th largest PB by a Fins’ swimmer, and this in turn means that she enters the Fins’ top 50 rankings in 17^th place. The swimmer to drop out is Megan Ovens who set her time at the Glenrothes Spring Meet in March 2017.

Kristin also had a 4.03 second PB in the Backstroke, which enters her in the rankings in 27^th place. The swimmer going out is in the current squads, Grace Wilson, who set her time at the Fife Leagues in June this year, so hopefully a chance will present itself to allow Grace to re-enter the rankings with a time to beat of 36.33 seconds.

Kristin had two further PBs that impacted the rankings and they were an 0.84 second PB in the butterfly which moves Kristin from 46^th place to 33^rd place, and finally a 1.71 second PB in the freestyle means that Kristin enters the rankings in 42^nd place.

This means another swimmer drops out and this time it is Laura Peachy who set her time at Glenrothes in October 1987. The entry time now stands at 31.00 seconds.

 

Another young swimmer, 10 years old Millie Whytock did well in the 8 to 11 girls age group finishing 4^th in the backstroke, but in all five swims Millie was the fastest 10 year old. Millie’s other finishing positions were 8^th in the freestyle, and 9^th in the individual medley, breaststroke, and butterfly.

 

16 years old Grace Wilson, 16 and over girls, also had a 4^th place finish. This came in the freestyle. Grace also finished 11^th in the backstroke and 13^th in the butterfly.

 

19 years old Blair Wardlaw, 16 and over boys, had a 5^th place finish in the backstroke, an 8^th place in the butterfly, 9^th in the freestyle, and 11^th in the individual medley. Blair recorded a 2.86 second PB in the individual medley which moves him from 44^th to 35^th in the rankings.

 

16 year old Steven Pate, 16 and over boys, also had a 5^th place finish, this time in the breaststroke. His other three swims resulted in an 11^th place finish in both the butterfly and the freestyle, and 12^th in the individual medley.

Steven recorded the third largest PB by a Fins swimmer of 12.27 seconds in the butterfly, which just missed out on entry to the rankings by 0.20 seconds. Steven did however advance in the rankings, moving from 22^nd to 19^th in the breaststroke with a 0.47 second PB. Steven also advanced in the individual medley with a 3.97 second PB which moved him from 49^th to 36^th place.

Steven enters the rankings in 48^th place in the freestyle with a 0.28 second PB, displacing Michael Strang, who set his time in the Fife leagues in May 2018. The time to gain entry to the rankings now stands at 27.34 seconds.

 

11 years old Bailey Salmond-Will,  8 to 11 boys, gained a 6^th place in his 50m breaststroke. He also had a 10^th place finish in the freestyle and was 11^th in the backstroke.

 

12 years old Ethan Pate, 12/13 boys, highest finish was 7^th in the butterfly. He finished 8^th in the individual medley, 10^th in both the breaststroke and freestyle, and was 13^th in the backstroke.

 

16 years old Heidi Mellon had a relatively good day in the 16 and over girls age group. Heidi finished 9^th in the breaststroke where a 0.34 second PB meant she moved from 38^th to 37^th in the rankings, and in her second swim, the individual medley, she recorded the 5^th largest PB of the day, of 8.83 seconds, giving her entry to the rankings in 46^th place. This means that Stephanie Campbell drops out having set her time at the East District Age Groups in November 2013.

 

15 years old Alastair Gordon, 14/15 boys, had a 9^th place finish in the butterfly, three 13^th place finishes in the individual medley, backstroke and breaststroke, and a 15^th place finish in the freestyle. However, most significantly Alastair recorded the largest PB by a Fins’ swimmer, in the freestyle, reducing his previous best by 18.84 seconds, which he recorded at the Fife Novice league in 2020.

The final swimmer to make a top 10 finish was 14 years old Blake Goldie, 14/15 boys, who was 10^th in the breaststroke. Blake swam in all five events and his other placings were – 15^th in the butterfly, 16^th in both the individual medley and backstroke, and 17^th in the freestyle. Blake recorded the 6^th largest PB when he reduced his backstroke time by 8.58 seconds.

 

The results for the remaining swimmers are:

Kimberley McCabe, 16/O girls, 11^th – breaststroke; 16^th – backstroke

Caleb Gray, 12/13 boys, 12^th – backstroke; 13^th – individual medley; 14^th – butterfly; 16^th freestyle; 18^th – breaststroke

Sadie Paton, 8 to 11 girls, 12^th – individual medley; 14^th – butterfly

Eva Watson, 12/13 girls, three 14^th placings in the individual medley, breaststroke, and butterfly; and two 15^th placings in the backstroke and freestyle

Jennifer Gordon, 16/O girls, two 14^th placings in the individual medley and freestyle; two 15^th placings in the backstroke and butterfly; and 16^th – breaststroke. In the individual medley Jennifer recorded the 2^nd largest PB of 13.10 seconds which meant she just missed out on a top 50 ranking by 0.23 seconds.

Wiktor Bak, 16/O boys, 14^th – backstroke; 16^th – breaststroke; 17^th – butterfly; and 18^th – individual medley

Eden Mackie, 8 to 11 girls, 15^th – breaststroke; 17^th – freestyle

Ellen McLaughlin, 16/O girls, 16^th – freestyle; and 17^th in both the individual medley and butterfly

Grant Wardlaw, 16/O boys, 16^th – backstroke; 17^th – breaststroke; and 19^th – freestyle

Grace Mills, 8 to 11 girls, 16^th – backstroke

Summer Ramshaw, 8 to 11 girls, 17^th – individual medley

Dmitri Tincovan, 12/13 boys, 18^th – backstroke; 20^th – butterfly

Abby Morris, 14/15 girls, three 19^th placings in the breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle; 20^th – individual medley; and 21^st – backstroke

Zeteny Nagy, 12/13 boys, 19^th – breaststroke; 22^nd freestyle; and 23^rd individual medley. Zeteny recorded the 4^th largest PB reducing his breaststroke time by 9.35 seconds.

Emilia Wisniewska, 12/13 girls, 21^st – freestyle; 24^th – individual medley.

 

 

Geordie Wotherspoon Trophy

The other event that took place last Sunday was the Geordie Wotherspoon Trophy and eight younger Fins’ novice swimmers took part, and were very successful. They all had one swim each winning 3 gold and 1 silver medal, plus two 4^th placings, a 6^th  and a 10^th.

 

The three gold medals were won by 10 years old, Leyton Neilson, 8 to 10 boys, who won the 25m freestyle in a time of 20.46 seconds which reduced his previous best by 2.09 seconds,

9 years old Elliot Blair, 8 to 10 boys, who won the 25m backstroke in a time of 23.16 seconds which reduced his previous best by 0.99 seconds, and

9 years old Charlie Jack, 8 to 10 boys who won the 25m breaststroke in a time of 28.93 seconds. Although Charlie has swum a 50 breaststroke this was his first 25m swim, so that sets his PB for this event.

 

The silver medal was won by 10 years old Chelsea Walker, 8 to 10 girls, in the 25m breaststroke, in a time of 30.02 seconds. Chelsea recorded the largest Fins’ PB by reducing her previous best by 5.96 seconds.

 

The two 4^th places were achieved by 11 years old Lily Bonnar, 11/12 girls, in the 50m backstroke, in a time of 57.82 seconds, which was a 0.62 second PB, and

Olivia Hathaway, 11/12 girls, in the 50m breaststroke in a time of 1 minute 2.88 seconds. This was Olivia’s first competitive swim.

 

10 year old Olivia Bak, 8 to 10 girls, finished in 6^th place in the 25m backstroke in a time of 25.15 seconds, and in the same event 9 year old Clare Thomson, 8 to 10 girls, finished 10^th in a time of 30.55 seconds. This was the first competitive swim for both girls.

 

Another very good day for the swimmers and a very busy one for the coaches, so well done to all those involved.

 

Thanks, yet again, to Yvonne Pate for the photos, another good job.

 

Ken White

Club Press Officer