Novice & Fife Leagues, 2023, Round 1

Last Sunday saw the start of the 2023 Fife Leagues, held at the Michael Woods Centre, Glenrothes. For Round I of the leagues Fins had a total of 41 swimmers in action, 27 in the League and 14 in the Novice League and all swimmers had a brilliant meet.

 

In the league the swimmers competed in 54 swims and recorded 46 PBs, an excellent improvement rate of 84%, plus additional PBs in the 12 and under and 15 and over Mixed 4 x 50m freestyle relay first leg.

 

In the novice league the 14 swimmers competed in 28 swims, 27 of which were first competitive swims in their individual events plus one swimmer who swam an event at the novice league towards the end of last year and recorded an sizable PB.

 

The times recoded in the league resulted in movement in six of the Fins’ all time short course top 50 rankings plus one new entry.

 

The top performance came from Erin Taylor whose 0.48 second PB in the 50m butterfly moves her from 9^th to 4^th place.

Next was Blair Wardlaw whose 0.63 seconds PB in the 100m backstroke moves him from 19^th to 15^th place. Blair also moves from 18^th to 16^th place in the 50m Backstroke with a 0.59 second PB

The largest, and the shortest, movements go to Ben Lewis whose 1.22 seconds PB in the 50m butterfly propelled him from 36^th to 16^th place, where as a 0.26 PB in the 100m freestyle moves him from 28^th to 27^th.

Grace Wilson also had a large advance from 35^th to 25^th place in the 50m freestyle with 0.43 second PB, and proceeded to reduce it even further in the first leg of the relay by 0.31 seconds which in turn moved her up to 23^rd equal.

The one entry was Irys Blair whose 1.57 second PB in her 100m backstroke, enters the top 50 in 46^th place.

The swimmer dropping out is Leeanne Sinclair who set her time at Glenrothes in April 1995, and the time now required to enter this event stands at 1 minute 17.01 seconds.

 

The top three PBs recorded are interesting, the largest came from Alastair Gordon who reduced his 100m breaststroke time by 1 minute 1.30 seconds. His previous time came as a novice league swimmer in 2020.

Campbell Rae reduced his 50m freestyle by 16.65 seconds and again his previous time was as a novice league swimmer in 2020. Campbell also reduced his 100m breaststroke by 3.66 seconds.

Zeteny Nagy reduced his 100m breaststroke time by 14.82 seconds but that was from a more recent time towards the end of 2022.

Other PBs worth noting were:

Blake Goldie – 50m freestyle, reduced by 5.62 seconds

Adam Selbie – 200m freestyle, reduced by 4.03 seconds

Sadie Paton – 50m butterfly, reduced by 3.96 seconds

Wiktor Bak – 100m freestyle, reduced by 3.62 seconds

Caleb Gray reduced his 100m backstroke by 3.41 seconds, and in the 4 x 50m freestyle relay Eva Watson reduced her 50m freestyle time by seconds 3.53

 

The full results from the league are:

Caleb Gray, 12/U boys, 1^st – 100m backstroke; 1^st – 200m freestyle

Ethan Pate, 12/U boys, 1^st – 50m butterfly; 1^st – 200m individual medley

Erin Taylor, 15/O girls, 1^st – 50m butterfly; 1^st – 200m individual medley

Ben Lewis, 15/O boys, 1^st – 50m butterfly; 1^st – 100m freestyle

Eva Watson, 12/U girls, 1^st – 100m backstroke; 2^nd – 50m breaststroke

Lilian Blair, 12/U girls, 1^st – 50m butterfly; 2^nd – 200m breaststroke

Millie Whytock, 12/U girls, 1^st – 100m freestyle; 2^nd – 50m backstroke

Adam Selbie, 13/14 boys, 1^st – 50m butterfly; 2^nd – 200m freestyle

Blair Wardlaw, 15/O boys, 1^st – 50m backstroke; 2^nd – 100m backstroke

Irys Blair, 13/14 girls, 2^nd – 100m backstroke; 2^nd – 200m backstroke

Heidi Mellon, 15/O girls, 2^nd – 100m breaststroke; 3^rd – 50m breaststroke

Campbell Rae, 15/O boys, 2^nd – 100m breaststroke; 5^th – 50m freestyle

Dmitri Tincovan, 12/U boys, 3^rd – 50m breaststroke; 3^rd – 50m freestyle

Jessica Christie, 12/U girls, 3^rd – 50m breaststroke; 4^th – 100m backstroke

Blake Goldie, 13/14 boys, 3^rd – 100m breaststroke; 4^th – 50m freestyle

Alastair Gordon, 15/O boys, 3^rd – 100m breaststroke; 8^th – 50m breaststroke

Sadie Paton, 12/U girls, 4^th – 50m butterfly; 4^th – 100m freestyle

Jakub Bogucki, 13/14 boys, 4^th – 50m backstroke; 4^th – 100m freestyle

Kimberley McCabe, 15/O girls, 4^th – 200m backstroke; 7^th – 100m backstroke

Grace Wilson, 15/O girls, 4^th – 50m freestyle; 8^th – 100m backstroke

Zeteny Nagy, 13/14 boys, 5^th – 50m backstroke; 6^th – 100m breaststroke

Charlotte Wardlaw, 15/O girls, 5^th – 100m breaststroke; 6^th – 50m backstroke

Jennifer Gordon, 15/O girls, 5^th – 50m backstroke; 6^th – 100m butterfly

Ellen McLaughlin, 15/O girls, 5^th 100m freestyle; 7^th = 50m freestyle

Wiktor Bak, 15/O boys, 6^th – 100m freestyle; 8^th – 50m butterfly

Abby Morris, 15/O girls, 6^th – 100m freestyle; 9^th – 50m butterfly

 

In the mixed 12/U 4x50m freestyle relay the team of Eva Watson, Lilian Blair, Caleb Gray, and Ethan Pate finished 1^st.

In the mixed 15/O 4x50m freestyle relay Fins’ A team of Grace Wilson, Erin Taylor, Blair Wardlaw, and Ben Lewis finished 2^nd ,while the B team of Jennifer Gordon, Ellen McLaughlin, Wiktor Bak, and Campbell Rae finished 9^th.

According to the official results sheet, Ben Lewis covered the last 50m split in minus 0.08 seconds, but was beaten to the world record by Richard Laws of Cupar who recorded a time of minus 0.09 seconds. Sam Coull of Step Rock could only manage minus 0.01 seconds. However, it is not vey often you see the three fastest times in the World at the Fife Leagues – Beam me up Scotty!!

 

Moving on to the Novice League and this must be one of best, or perhaps, the best performance from Fins’ novice swimmers, at a Fife Novice League. To swim competitively for the first time they did exceptionally well.

27 of the 28 swims were first time swims, with the remaining swim being the boys, 11/12 years, 50m freestyle, where Samuel Dick recorded an excellent 12.81 seconds PB.

 

What the swimmers achieved was also excellent with all the swimmers achieving a 5^th place or better. Overall, the 28 swims produced four 1^st; five 2^nd; and six 3^rd. placings plus eight further swims in the top five.

The full novice league results for Fins’ swimmers are:

Elliot Blair, 8/10 boys, 1^st – 25m backstroke; 1^st – 50m breaststroke

Ella Reid, 8/10 girls, 1^st – 25m butterfly; 3^rd – 50m backstroke

Bailey Salmond-Will, 11/12 boys, 1^st – 25m backstroke; 4^th – 25m breaststroke

Cole Gray, 11/12 boys, 2^nd – 50m backstroke; 2^nd – 25m breaststroke

Janie Stephen, 11/12 boys, 2^nd – 25n backstroke; 3^rd – 25m freestyle

Grace Mills, 8/10 girls, 2^nd – 25m freestyle; 5^th – 50m backstroke

Summer Ramshaw, 11/12 girls, 2^nd – 25m breaststroke; 12^th – 50m breaststroke

Samuel Dick, 11/12 boys, 3^rd – 25m butterfly; 3^rd – 50m freestyle

Charlie Jack, 8/10 boys, 3^rd – 25m freestyle; 7^th – 25m backstroke

Eden Mackie, 11/12 girls, 3^rd – 25m breaststroke, 8^th – 25m freestyle

Cameron Cullen, 11/12 boys, 4^th – 25m freestyle; 9^th – 50m breaststroke

Josephine Astrup Neilson, 11/12 girls, 4^th – 25m backstroke; 10^th – 50m freestyle

Amelia Page, 11/12 girls, 5^th – 25m freestyle; 5^th – 50m breaststroke

Lilly Bonnar, 11/12 girls, 5^th – 25m backstroke; 7^th – 25m freestyle

 

Very encouraging from both sets of swimmers.