Scottish National Age Group Championships

Fins Competitive Swim Club

Scottish National Age Group Championships

The Scottish National Age Group Championships ran from Saturday 4th April to Wednesday 8th April, inclusive, at the University of Aberdeen Sports Village. Entry to the event was oversubscribed with entries covering the UK from Shetland to Cornwall. They were organised into five separate age groups – 11 to 13 years, 14, 15, 16, and 17/18..

Fins managed to get seven swimmers qualifying for the championships and while there were no national titles they did manage to win two silver medals and one bronze, and with five of the seven swimmers qualifying for 19 of the evening finals, or the equivalent for the distance events, including the medal events. These, coupled with some of the performances, made this a successful championship for the club and the swimmers.

Fins’ top swimmer had an amazing five days, and that was 13 years female, Millie Whytock who won two silver medals and made six further finals finishing 4th in four of them. Millie’s medals came in the 100m and 200m butterfly. In her 100m she recorded an 0.84 second PB in her heat to qualify 2nd in the final, where she reduced her time by a further 1.14 seconds to finish just behind Charlie Hoare of Warrender Baths. Millie’s 200m was even more special where she recorded a 5.63 second PB in the heats to qualify for the final in 3rd place, and in the final reduced her time by a further 5.53 seconds to take the silver medal, again finishing behind Charlie Hoare.

Millie was also 4th in the 100m freestyle, the 100m backstroke, the 400m individual medley, and 200m freestyle. She also finished 5th in the 200m freestyle and 8th in the 200m backstroke.

All Millie’s swims resulted in PBs including the smallest, by a Fins’ swimmer, of one hundredth of a second in her 100m freestyle, and also the two largest, of the combined 200m butterfly of 10.94 seconds, and the 2nd largest of 8.99 seconds in her 200m freestyle.

Millie’s performances over the five days certainly had an impact on the long course Fins’ top 50 rankings, with her highest position being achieved in her 200m butterfly where sh moves from 7th to 3rd.

Millies other moves were – 100m butterfly moving from 12th to 5th; 100m backstroke, moving from 8th to 5th; 200m freestyle, moving from 12th to 6th; 400m freestyle, moving from 14th to 8th; 200m backstroke, moving from 11th to 9th;. Ther was no change to her 100m freestyle remaining in 8th place, and she had a first long course entry in her 400m individual medley in 10th place.

Fins other medal, a bronze, was won by Lilian Blair 14 years female, in the 100m freestyle. In her heats Lilian recorded a 0.75 second PB to qualify in 8th place, but a further 1.35 second PB in the final won her the bronze medal, behind the winner, Maddia Markell of Guilford City Swimming Club, and the silver medal winner, Emily Taylor of South Lanarkshire.

Lilian finished in 5th place in an extremely close final of the 50m freestyle. In the heats she qualified for the final in 2nd place with a 0.25 second PB, and despite taking a further 0.27 seconds off her time in the final, had to settle for 5th place , just 0.63 seconds behind the winner.

Lilian also made it through to three more finals finishing 7th in the200m individual medley, and 8th in both the 400m individual medley and100m butterfly, In her other two swims Lilian finished 12th (2nd reserve for the final) in the 200m freestyle, and 16th in the 100m backstroke.

Lilian’s highest point in the rankings remains in the place in the 50m freestyle. Although she did record a PB there was no change.

In her 100m freestyle Lilian moves from 8th to 7th, in her 200m freestyle she moves from 11th to 9th; and again despite a PB in her 200m individual medley there was no change, remaining in 10th place.

Kristin Mackay, 17/18 years female, made the equivalent of four finals in the distance events, finishing 6th in the 800m freestyle, 9th in both the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle, and 10th in the 400m individual medley.

Kirstin is the highest ranking long course swimmer, ranked 1st in the 1500m freestyle, 2nd in the 800m freestyle; 3rd 400m freestyle; and 4th – 499m individua medley. Kristin’ standings remain unchanged.

Eva Watson, 15 years female, made the equivalent of one final, finishing 10th in the 1500m freestyle. Eva was also 14th in the 400m freestyle and 18th in the 200m freestyle.

Eva is 2nd highest ranked swimmer at 2nd in the 1500m freestyle. She also moved from 8th to 7th in the 400m freestyle, and remains unchanged in 10th in the 200m freestyle.

The fifth swimmer out of the seven to make a final was Irys Blair, 16 years female, who was 10th in the final of the 50m backstroke. Irys also finished 18th in the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley, and 19th in the 200m backstroke.

Irys had no change in her 50m backstroke, where she remains inn 4th place; 5th in the 200m backstroke; and 9th in the 100m backstroke; and she moves from 17th to 16th in the 200m individual medley.

At 12 years old, Elliot Blair, 11 to 13 years male, was not expected to feature in the finals and in his only swim, 200m backstroke, he finished in 28th place. Elliot made the qualifying time and this was used as experience when he will be at the top age in the group, next year. On the day he finished as the 3rd 12 year old.

Despite recording a PB there is no change to Elliot’s ranking position, where he remains in 17th place.

This just leaves Harvey Whytock 16 years male, who also qualified for just one event, the 100m butterfly, and unfortunately for Harvey he was disqualified for a technical infringement, so Harvey remains at 9th place in his 100m butterfly.