First, apologies for the error in the Warrender report. In his 400m freestyle Adam moves from 23rd to 17th.
On Sunday 10 November the Fife Time Trials were held at the Michael Woods Centre, Glenrothes.
It is difficult to know where to start a report as there were no specific age groups, just 8 years and over, plus the results were mixed male and female so to say that a 10 year old finished in 52nd place would not give an accurate picture of how that swimmer performed in relation to other 10 year olds. I will however identify those swimmers who finished in the top 6, irrespective of age, within the report.
The purpose of a time trial is to try to achieve the best time possible and to try to improve on what had been achieved previously. In that regard the 28 Fins’ swimmers who competed in a total of 100 swims managed to achieve 75 PBs, which is a good return.
Eight swimmers did have an impact on the Fins’, all time, top 50 rankings, one achieved a PB but made no change to the rankings, and another came close to making the rankings.
Therefore, using the rankings as a basis, the top Fins’ performance was achieved by Kristin Mackay, 16 girls who reached the highest position moving from 21st place to 19th place in her 200m freestyle, with a 0.93 second PB. Kristin’s time of 2 minutes 16.11 seconds officially ranks her in 17th place in the 16 years girls’ Scottish rankings.
Kristin also finished 3rd in the 200m butterfly.
It also proved a good day for Irys Blair, 14 girls, who had the largest move of 18 places from 38th to 20th in the 50m backstroke with a 1.62 second PB. Irys also moved from 31st to 27th in the 200m backstroke, with a 3.07 second PB, and she also enters the ranking in 48th place in the 100m butterfly, with her best PB of the day – 5.47 seconds. As this is an entry another swimmer must drop out and that is Megan Ovens, who recorded her time at the Fife Schools Championships in November 2016.
This means the entry time for 100m butterfly now stands at 1 minute 15.63 seconds.
Irys also features in the 14 years girls’ Scottish rankings, placed 17th in her 200m backstroke and 24th in the 50m backstroke.
Irys was 3rd in the 100m butterfly and 4th in the 50m backstroke
Ben Lewis, Open Boys, moved from 30th to 25th in the 50m freestyle with a 0.51 second PB, which makes him the fastest swimmer in the current squads. Unfortunately, Ben does not feature in the Scottish rankings as he is now in the Open category, which covers all age groups. At the Time Trials Ben finished in 4th place.
Ben also moved from 27th to 26th in the 100m freestyle rankings with a 0.13 second PB and was placed 2nd at the Time Trials. He also gained a further 2nd place finish in the 50m butterfly.
Adam Selbie, 14 boys, moved from 42nd place to 28th place in the 200m freestyle, finishing in 2nd place, and his time of 2 minutes 6.20 seconds ranks him in 6th place in the 14 years boys’ Scottish rankings. Adam also finished 4th in the 100m freestyle where his time was 0.62 seconds slower than the time recorded at the Warrender Meet two weeks previous. However, the Warrender results have not been forwarded to Rankings and as a result the time recorded at the Fife Time Trial, has been forwarded, which means he is ranked 9th equal in the Scottish Rankings, while it should be 7th.
Adam had an entry to the top 50 in his 50m freestyle, finishing 6th on the day, with a 1.08 second PB which enters him in 42nd place. The swimmer to drop out on this occasion is Stephen Moffat who set his time at Whitburn in March 1993, and the new entry time for the 50m freestyle is now 27.40 seconds.
Adam’s time of 26.81 seconds also ranks him in 9th place in the Scottish rankings.
Lilian Blair, 12 girls, achieved two entries, and came close to another on the Fins rankings. Lilian’s top entry came in the 50m backstroke in 39th place, and she also enters the 200m butterfly in 50tj place. Her backstroke position was achieved with a 2.23 second PB and her 200m butterfly was the result of a first competitive swim in this event.
With Lilian gaining two entries, three swimmers drop out. In the 50m backstroke two swimmers were tied in 50th place and they were, Catriona Child who set her time at Carnegie in November 1995, and Grace Wilson, who set her time at the Fife Leagues, in June 2024. The entry time is now 36.15 seconds.
In the 200m butterfly Lilian enters in 50trh place and replaces Karen Williamson who set her time at Whitburn in April 1992. This means the entry time is now 3 minutes 12.99 seconds. In the overall placings on the day Lilian had one top six finish – 6th on the 50m backstroke.
Lilian had one further swim, the 200m freestyle where she produced her largest PB, and 4th largest by a Fins’ swimmer, of 9.90 seconds. This fell just short of the entry time to Fins’ rankings by 0.44 seconds.
In terms of 12 years girls’ Scottish rankings Lilian stands at 6th in the 50m backstroke, 8th in the 200m freestyle, and 12th in the 200m butterfly.
Jack Campbell, 12 boys, enters the Fins rankings for the 200m butterfly in 46th place. This was Jack’s first competitive swim in this event. The swimmer dropping out is Luke Stevenson who set his time at Carnegie in December 2007.
Jack recorded the largest PB of the day by reducing his 100m backstroke by 42.94 seconds and also recorded the 6th largest by reducing his 100m individual medley by 6.54 seconds.
In terms of Scottish 12 years boys’ rankings Jack in now 8th in the 200m butterfly and 21st in the 200m backstroke.
Eva Watson, 13 girls, had one step up the rankings and that came in her 200m butterfly, moving from 48th to 47th with a 2.24 second PB.
Eva also recorded the 5th largest PB of 6.79 seconds in her 200m breaststroke and the 8th largest, with an improvement of 5.70 seconds in her 200m backstroke.
Ethan Pate, 13 boys, finished in 4th place in the 200m butterfly, and although he recorded a 1.32 seconds PB it was not quite enough to make a change in the rankings He also had a good PB in his 200m freestyle of 3.64 seconds which gives him a 12th place ranking in the Scottish 12 years boys.
Millie Whytock, 12 girls, is a good example why it would have given a false picture if the finishing positions had been used. Millie’s highest position was 12th in the 200m butterfly. It was the first time she had swam the event competitively and she was just 0.22 seconds away from entering Fins’ top 50 rankings. Millie’s 200m breaststroke was also a first time competitive swim. All Millie’s other swims produce PBs and her achievement is probably better reflected in the Scottish 12 years girls’ rankings where Millie sits 4th in the 200m butterfly, 6th in the 50m butterfly, 8th in the 200m breaststroke and 10th in the 50m breaststroke.
Kimberley McCabe, Open Girls, just failed to make the top 50 in two events. The closest she came was her 200m breaststroke where she was
0.34 seconds short, and in her 100m breaststroke she was 1.23 seconds short, recording a 5th place overall.
Some of the top eight improvements have already been mentioned but the remaining three all came from the same swimmer – Summer Ramshaw, 12 girls, who had the second largest with a 13.04 second in her 100m individual medley, the 3rd with a 10.27 second improvement in her 50m butterfly, and the 7th, a 6.37 second improvement in her 50m backstroke.
There were only a further 8 swims that achieved an overall 6th place or better and all but one of those came from the younger, less experienced swimmers, in the shorter distances.
The only winner was Grace Mills, 11 girls who won both the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle. Grace was also 2nd in the 50m freestyle and 4th in the 50m breaststroke.
Lily-Mae McDonald, 9 girls, was 3rd in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 50m butterfly
Kaja Debska, 13 girls, was 5th in the 50m freestyle.
Finnley McDonald, 15 boys, was 6th in the 100m freestyle.
The remaining swimmers to compete, roughly in order of their largest PBs were –
Sadie Paton, 12 girls.
Lily Bonnar, 12 girls.
Caleb Gray, 13 boys,
Leyton Neilson, 11 boys.
Cole Gray, 12 boys.
Charlie Jack, 10 boys.
Eden Mackie, 12 girls.
Chelsea Walker, 11 girls,
Elliot Blair, 10 boys,
Lacey Donald, 15 girls.
Eilidh Needham, 10 girls.
Abby Morris, 16 girls.
Steven Pate, 17 boys.
The Scottish rankings for the 9 and 10 years have not been included for various reasons – the morning session was a level 3 meet and therefore not included in the Scottish rankings. The afternoon session which was a level 2 meet and are included in the Scottish rankings. The rankings for 9 and 10 years sometimes only have a few swimmers, and where there are more they tend to be more volatile.
Well done to all the swimmers who competed. It is good to see that the youngers swimmers are accessing or certainly closing in on the Fins top 50 all time rankings. This is good because each time an entry is made to the rankings and the slowest time drops out it becomes that bit more difficult to achieve the entry time.
The photo shows some of the swimmers who took part and are:
Back five – Kaja, Finnley, Eva, Lacey, and Eden
Middle five – Kimberley. Eilidh, Millie, Chelsea, and Lilian
Front five – Caleb, Elliot, Summer, Lily-Mae, and Sadie.
Photo is courtesy of Laura Whytock
– Ken White, Club Press Officer.