Kirkcaldy based Fins Competitive Swim Club got the 2026 season off to a very good start in the first competition of the year, which was Round 1 of the Scottish East District Championships held at the Michael Woods Centre, Glenrothes, last weekend.
This was a distance meet with four events available to swimmers, both male and female in each age group namely the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle, and 400m individual medley.
Fins swimmers won three District Titles, 5 silver medals, 2 bronze medals and had an additional 9 finishes in 10th place or better.
Top swimmer for Fins was 14 year old Lilian Blair who won all three District Titles in the 400m and 1500m freestyle and the 400m individual medley. Lilian also took the silver medal in the 800m freestyle finishing behind Caoimhe Vick of Warrender Baths. There was no change in Lilian’s position in the Fins all-time top 50 rankings for the 1500m freestyle remaining in 5th place. There was also no change in the 400m individual medley, this time remaining in 19th place even though she recorded a 25.53 second PB. In her 400m Freestyle Lilian moves from 41st place to 26th with an 11.22 PB, and in her 800m freestyle she moves from 23rd to 13th with a 39.91 second PB.
13 year old Millie Whytock won silver medals in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle behind Charlie Hoare, Warrender Baths, in all three events. In her 1500m freestyle Millie moves from19th place to 8th place with a 34.28 second PB, and in her 400m freestyle a 3.83 moved her from 38th to 31st. Millie recorded a 39.91 second PB in her 800m freestyle which moved her from 39th to 14th.
Elliot Blair, 12 year old won a silver medal in the 400m freestyle and a bronze in the 400 individual medley. With 12 year olds being excluded from the 800m and 1500m freestyle that was all that was available for Elliot. He finished behind Murray Robertson, Heart of Midlothian in the 400m freestyle and again behind Murray and in 2nd Matthew Elliott of Warrender Baths, in the 400m individual medley. In addition to recording the largest PB of a Fins swimmer Elliot also recorded an 18.24 second PB in his 400m individual medley but neither of his times meet the qualifying time for the rankings.
The remaining medal was a bronze won by 17 and over Kristin Mackay in the 1500m freestyle. Kristin just missed out on a second medal, finishing 4th in the 800m freestyle. Despite a 9.34 second PB in her 1500 freestyle there was no change to her ranking position which remains 2nd, and similarly there was no change to her 400m individual medley where she remains in 4th place.
The swimmers who finished in the top 10 were :
Cole Gray, 14 years male, who was 6th in the 1500m freestyle and 8th in the 400m individual medley. Cole had no changes to the rankings.
Harvey Whytock, 16 years male, who finished 6th in the 400m individual medley. Was the only swimmer to enter the top 50 rankings and did so in the 400m individual medley with a 5.53 second PB
Ethan Pate, 15 years male who was 7th in the 400m freestyle and 9th in the 1500m freestyle.
Caleb Gray, who was 10th in the 1500m freestyle.
Both Ethan and Caleb did exceptionally well in the 1500m freestyle, but with Erhan’s time of 18 minutes50.23 seconds to Caleb’s 18 minutes 51.37 seconds the two swimmers swap places in the rankings with Ethan now in 30th place and Caleb in 31st but with just over 1 second separating this is nothing in a 1500m event.
Jack Campbell, 14 years male, finished 10th in the 400m individual medley and 16th in the 400m freestyle recording a 33.43, which unfortunately falls short of the entry time for both events.
While the swimmers will look to finish as high as possible in a race another measure of success is how much they have improved in any event, and some of the improvements recorded by Fins’ swimmers were exceptional.
Of the 21 PBs recorded 8 were more than 30 seconds with 3 more than one minute. The most improved swimmer was Elliot Blair with a 1 minute12.83 seconds in his 499m freestyle which is an incredible achievement.
The other two PBs in excess of one minute were both done in the 1500m freestyle and they were by Ethan Pate with a 1 minute 12.74 seconds PB, and Caleb Gray with a 1 minute 3.76 second PB.
The two remaining swimmers were Irys Blair and Sadie Paton
There was more good news for Fins this week in that four swimmers have been selected for the Scottish Open Water Development Squad and are Lilian Blair, Irys Blair, Kristin Mackay, and Caleb Gray.