Scottish National Short Course 2023

Two Fins’ swimmers qualified for the top short course event in Scotland, the Scottish National Short Course and Open 2023, held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, from 8^th to 10^th December 2023.

There was a full entry for the event with 93 Clubs/Teams taking part with 45 coming from England plus one from Wales.

There were mixed fortunes for the two swimmers with 18 year old Erin Taylor competing in six events  and making it through to three ‘B’ finals, and just missing out on a fourth by just 2 hundredths of a second.

Erin’s top swim was the 200m butterfly where she finished 3^rd in the ‘B’ final, 11^th overall, recording her only PB at the meet of 1.99 seconds. Erin’s time of 2 minutes 22.26 seconds ranks her 1^st in the18 year old girls’ Scottish rankings, which will last for 21 days as single year rankings stop at 18. Come the 1st January 2024 Erin’s rankings will be in the Open category which covers all ages and her time will rank her 6^th in Scotland  It also just falls short of another Fins’ club record, one of the oldest, by just 0.67 seconds, which is still held by former Scottish senior internationalist, Carole Lewis, who set the record in December 1985.

Erin was also 3^rd in the ‘B’ final of the 400m individual medley, just missing out on her PB by 0.37 seconds. However, her time of 4 minutes 57.53 seconds still ranks her at the top of the current 18 years girls’ rankings, and she is now 8^th in the Open rankings.

In the 200m breaststroke Erin was 4^th in the ‘B’ final, 2.06 seconds outside her PB and is ranked 2^nd 18 year old and 7^th in the Scottish Open rankings.

Erin just missed out on a ‘B’ final place in the 100m breaststroke finishing 17^th, and was also 21^st in the 200m individual medley and 22^nd in the 50m breaststroke.

Kristin @ SNSC

The second swimmer was 15 year old Kristin Mackay, who just turned 15 last month.

She qualified for the event in 2022 but was unable to compete due to illness. Once again, this year she was suffering from a chesty cough but had a go at her first event, the 400m individual medley, where she struggled. 

Unfortunately, Kristin had to withdraw from her remaining two events, the 200m butterfly and the 1500m freestyle. She was particularly disappointed about the 1500m freestyle as she recorded the third fastest time in Scotland by a 15 year old girl, at the Scottish East District Championships, on 25 November 2023, and she still ranks 3^rd in the 15 years girls’ Scottish rankings.