Fins Competitive Swim Club

The top age group meet in the Scottish Calendar was held last week from Wednesday morning through to Sunday evening when the Scottish National Age Group Championships were held at the Tollcross International Swim Centre in Glasgow. The meet attracted a sizable number of swimmers from Enagland and the four Fins’ swimmers competing made it another excellent week for Fins with a quote from a very pleased Head Coach, Ian Lewis, that all four swimmers performed extremely well. The four swimmers were Erin Taylor – 17/18 years girls; Mark Scott – 16 years boys; Steven Pate – 15 years boys; and Adam Selbie 11/13 years boys.

Overall, the swimmers competed in a total of 16 swims, 14 of which were PBs. There was one Scottish Age Group Champion, one bronze medal and a further six made a final, or its equivalent when it was a heat declared winner event. There were also a further three Fins club records broken.

Top Fins swimmer was, once again, Erin who is now the Scottish 17/18 years 200m Breaststroke Champion, but was made to work hard all the way, by Nula Gow of Garioch, in an unbelievable close race. At the end of the first 50m Erin established a 0.61 second lead, which she increased slightly to 0.67 seconds at the halfway turn. However, by the end of the third 50m Nula had gained an advantage of 0.07 seconds and the two girls battled it out stroke for stroke down the final 50m with Erin getting the touch by just 1 one hundredth of a second. Erin’s time of 2 minutes 36.43 seconds now ranks Erin at the top of the Scottish long course rankings for 200m breaststroke, and 5th ranked in Britain, up from 15th. Erin’s time was a very respectable 4.95 second PB and is a new club record, and again she also set a new club record at the 50m split in a time of 34.75 seconds beating her own previous best by 0.21 seconds.

The 17 years 100m and 200m breaststroke, in Scotland, is extremely competitive and Erin had to settle for a bronze medal in the 100m event although she did have a 0.01 second PB, giving her the third club record of the week. The winner on this occasion was Kiera Davidson, City of Glasgow, with Nula in second but the gap between Kiera and Erin was just 0.35 seconds.

In another close finish Erin just missed out on a second bronze medal in the 200m butterfly losing out to Drew McKenzie, City of Glasgow, by 5 one hundredths of a second to take 4th place. Erin made it four out of four finals with a 6th place in the 200m individual medley.

Mark had three swims, all PBs, and did well to gain a 4th place in the 1500m freestyle; 5th in the 400 freestyle and 7th in the 800m Freestyle. There are very few opportunities to swim an 800m Freestyle and this was Mark’s first long course swim but he had an excellent time of 9 minutes 12.55 seconds which was an improvement of 16.02 seconds on his short course time.

Adam had six swims over the week and wasn’t expected to achieve any top 10 placings because he was in a three year age group and classed as a 12 year old it is not going to be easy to compete against 13 year olds. While Adam was there because he had made the qualifying times and it was an opportunity to gain valuable experience as this level of meet in readiness for next year’s Championships. It was a bonus to finish 7th in the 1500m freestyle. Adam’s entry time was a conversion from his short course time he did at the Fife distance meet in February and he reduced that by 11.02 seconds.

Steven Pate had three swims over the week and although he didn’t make a final he was 2nd reserve for the final of the 50m breaststroke. Because of the pandemic Steven hadn’t been able to swim a long course 50m breaststroke since 2019 but even so an actual 9.96 second PB over 50m is excellent and if he could have squeezed a further 0.28 seconds off his time he would have made the final.

Club Info.

As mentioned in the EDAG Round 3 report, Fins do not yet have a top 50 long course ranking lists but are working towards this. The results rom the Scottish Age Group Championships have seen some changes including new entries.

Following her 200m breaststroke win and long course new club records Erin is obviously top ranked in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke. In her 200m butterfly, Erin remains in second place but has closed the gap to top spot to just 0.19 seconds, and similarly in her 200m individual medley there is no change in position but has moved to within 0.62 off the club record.

Mark had first time long course swims in the 800m and 1500m freestyle and as a result has move into second spot in the club rankings, behind Ian Lewis in both events. In his 400m freestyle Mark remains in 4th place but has close the gap on 3rd spot to 0.21 seconds.

The large PB in his 50m breaststroke moved Steven up the rankings from 13th to 9th, and in his first long course 200m breaststroke Steven enters the rankings in 9th place. In his 100m breaststroke he remains in 10th place.

Adam had three first time long course swims resulting in the following ranking positions – 1500m freestyle – 6th; 400m freestyle – 11th; 50m backstroke – 13th. In his 100m butterfly Adam remains in 15th spot but closed the gap by 2.24 seconds, and in his 100m freestyle he remains in 21st spot closing the gap by 0.66 seconds.