Back Row: Steven and Adam,                         Front Row: Irys, Erin, and Ethan

The top long course Age Group swimming event, in Scotland, was held over five days from Wednesday 12th April to Sunday 16th April at the Aberdeen Sports Village. Five Fins’ swimmers qualified for the Scottish National Age Group Championships and did exceptionally well.

Fins’ top performance came from Erin Taylor, 17/18 years girls, in her final year as an age group swimmer, who won a total of 4 silver medals, but must consider herself very unfortunate that she did not manage to land a championship title. In all four events she was beaten to the gold by Nula Gow of Garioch Amateur Swimming Club. Her two closest finals were the 200m Individual Medley, where there was just 0.28 seconds separating the swimmers, and the 100m breaststroke where, in an extremely close race, Erin just missed out by two hundredths of a second. Although she turned Just ahead at the half way mark she agonisingly just missed out on the final touch.

Her other two silver medals came in the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.

Erin also qualified for the final of the 50m breaststroke, finishing 6th. She was also first reserve for the final of the 50m butterfly (11th), and was 16th in the 100m butterfly.

Adam Selbie, 11 to 13 years’ boys also managed to qualify for finals finishing 8th in the 1500m freestyle, 9th in the 100m backstroke and 10th in the 200m backstroke. He was also 2nd reserve for the final of the 200m butterfly and finished 13th in the 800m freestyle and 17th in the 200m freestyle.

Steven Pate, 16 years’ boys, was 1st reserve for the final of the 50m breaststroke, and finished 22nd in the 100m breaststroke.

Irys Blair, 11 to 13 years’ girls was 2nd reserve for the final the 200m backstroke, and finished 16th in the 100m backstroke, 17th in the 400m freestyle, 28th in both the 200m individual medley and 200m freestyle, and 37th in the 100m freestyle.

The remaining swimmer was Ethan Pate, 11 to 13 years boys, who was only one of two 12 year olds to qualify for the 200m butterfly event finishing in 21st place.

The swimmers competed in a total of 22 swims, and managed to better their entry time in 14 of them, with all five swimmers recording PBs. The largest improvement came from Adam who reduced his 1500m freestyle time by 1 minute 6.20 seconds having set his previous best at the same meet a year ago. He also improved his 200m butterfly time by 8.96 seconds.

Ethan’s only swim of meet, the 200m  butterfly, resulted in a 16.57 second PB.

 

Fins’ improvement rate at Aberdeen may seem lower than normal at 64% but when this figure is compared with the overall performance at the meet it certainly put things into perspective. Overall, there were around a total of 4,450 individual swims which resulted in an improvement of around 1740 to the swimmers’ entry time, which gives an improvement rate of just 39%. So pretty good for the Fins’ swimmers, in comparison.

What did the performances do for the long course rankings? As mentioned previously the long course rankings are still at the formation stage so the answer to the question is ‘not much’. Several PBs have made no difference to the swimmers’ position in the rankings, although there are also several movements.

 

Erin remains top of the rankings in her 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke, and 2nd in the 200m and 400m individual medley. In her 50m butterfly she moves up one place to 3rd and is only 0.81 seconds away from gaining top spot. And, in the 100m butterfly Erin remains in 4th place

Adam’s 800m freestyle was a first time long course swim and means that he enters the rankings in 5th place, and despite a massive PB in his 1500m freestyle he remains in 6th place. Again, despite a large PB Adam remains in 8th place in his 200m butterfly. However, there was a small movement in the 200m backstroke where he moves up one place to 11th, and a slightly larger move in the 200m freestyle up from 15th to 12th, and in his 100m backstroke Adam remains in 14th place.

There was movement on both of Steven’s swims moving from 9th to 7th in the 50m breaststroke and up one place to 9th in the 100m breaststroke.

Ethan’s only swim, 200m butterfly produce the second largest PB of the week but he remains in 10th place in the rankings.

Irys had an entry to the rankings in 11th place in her 400m freestyle. Irys also remains in 13th place in both her 200m backstroke and 200m freestyle. She remains in 16th place in her 100m backstroke and 18th place in her 100m freestyle. In her remaining event, at SNAGS, Irys remains in 20th place for her 200m individual medley.

 

Ken White
Club Press Officer