Seventeen Fins’ swimmers were in action over the past two weekends and continued the successful start to 2018.
Last Saturday the venue for the Brodies Scottish Schools Swimming Championships was the six lane 50m Pool at the Dollan Aquatics Centre in East Kilbride. With only six lanes and the number of heats restricted to two per age group per event (one for the 17 to 19s) qualifying for the Championships was an achievement in itself. Qualification was based on times recorded at schools’ events in all of the Scottish Council areas during November and December 2017, with the Fife event held at the Michael Woods Centre in Glenrothes.
In this year’s Championships Fins’ swimmers doubled the number of medallists and more than doubled the number of qualifiers from 2017. The number of swimmers to qualify was eight.
Top swimmer for Fins was once again Caitlyn Dodds, 15/16 girls, (Auchmuty High School) who won the silver medal in the 100m Backstroke with the gold going to Ellis Shiels of Bearsden Academy. Caitlyn had a 5th place finish last year.
The remaining medal was a bronze won by Theo Goodfellow, 15/16 boys, (Balwearie High School) in the 100m Breaststroke.
Two more swimmers just missed out on a medal and they were:
Neža Dolenc-Luznar, 13/14 girls, (Balwearie High School) who was 4th in the 100m Butterfly, just less than a second away from bronze. Neža also finished 6th in the 200m Butterfly.
Catherine Comrie, 17 to 19 girls, (Inverkeithing High School) who was 4th in the 200m Individual Medley.
The remaining qualifiers were:
Esme Lee, 12/U girls, (Strathallan Primary School) who was 7th in the 50m Breaststroke.
Holly Armit, 12/U girls, (Balwearie High School) who was 11th in the 50m Freestyle.
Sophie Juskowiak, 13/14 girls, (Bell Baxter High School) who was 11th in the 100m Breaststroke, and
Mark Scott, 12/U boys, (Strathallan Primary School) who was unfortunately disqualified in the 50m Freestyle.
The previous Saturday and Sunday 9 swimmers competed in a total of 22 swims at the Carnegie Swimming Club’s Graded meet at the Michael Woods Centre in Glenrothes, with five of the swimmers gaining nine medals and along with a sixth swimmer gained a further four top ten finishes.
Top Swimmer for Fins was Ben Lewis, 12/13 boys, who won a special medal for the 100m Backstroke where he beat the time band in a time of 1 minute 11.28 seconds. Ben also won the 200m Individual Medley, improving his previous best by 7.85 seconds which was the second largest improvement by a Fins’ swimmer.
Megan Ovens, 14/O girls, won a gold and a silver medal with the gold coming in the 100m Butterfly and the silver in the 100m Freestyle.
The final gold medal was won by Kimberley McCabe, 14/O girls, in the 100m Breaststroke. She also gained a bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle.
Erin Taylor, 12/13 girls, won two silver medals for the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly.
The final medal, a bronze, was won by Bethany Michie, 14/O girls, in the 50m Breaststroke. Bethany also had three 8th. placings in the 100, Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle.
Holly Armit, 12/13 girls, was 5th in the 100m Breaststroke.
The remaining three swimmers are all relatively new to competitive swimming but all recorded PBs, although not quite enough to give them a top ten finish. The PBs included a 16.77 seconds improvement in her 50m Breaststroke by Katy Nicholson, 11/U girls, which was the largest by a Fins’ swimmer.
The other two swimmers were Grant Wardlaw (11/U), ad Ryan Nicholson (12/13).
The overall improvement rate was again a very good 73%.
Given the weather in recent weeks, the thought of Open Water swimming was probably the furthest thing in anyone’s mind. However, not so for one Fins Swimmer, Arran Stowe, who received his invitation to take part in the Red Bull Neptune Steps Challenge 2018. This event will take place at the Maryhill Locks on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Glasgow on Saturday 10 March 2018. He receives an invitation as an elite swimmer having finished 2017 in the top five ranking of Senior Scottish Open Water swimmers. Arran is ranked 4th overall.