Several Fins’ swimmers have competed in three different events recently. Swim West Lothian Distance Meet, Haddington Swim Meet and Warrender Baths Club Junior Age Group meet. Warrender produced the results immediately following the event on Sunday 30 October and this was followed by Swim West Lothian on 31 October, even though the event took place on 8 October, and Haddington have yet to publish their results.
The two meets, where results are available, were both held at the Xcite pool in Bathgate. In the Warrender meet five swimmers competed, three 12/13 years swimmers on the Saturday and two 11 years swimmers on the Sunday. Overall, they competed in 26 events recording 19 PBs in the process, giving a 73% improvement rate.
At the Warrender meet the top swimmer for Fins was Caleb Gray, 11 years boys, who was the only medal winner, winning gold in the 200m freestyle, silver in both the 200m individual medley and 50m butterfly, and bronze in the 50m breaststroke, 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke. Next was Adam Selbie, 12/13 boys who finished 5th in all his four events, 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 100m breaststroke and 400m freestyle. To be fair, it should be mentioned that this is a double year age group and Adam was fastest 12 year old in all his events with the exception of the 100m breaststroke. Eva Watson, 11 years girls, 7th – 200m freestyle; 11th – 50m backstroke; 13th in both the 100m individual medley and 50m butterfly, 14th – 50m breaststroke; and 15th – 50m freestyle. Irys Blair, 12/13 girls, 9th – 400m freestyle; 12th – 100m backstroke; 13th – 200m individual medley; 14th – 100m butterfly; and 19th – 100m breaststroke. Medeea-Miriam Gorea, 12/13 girls, 13th – 100m butterfly; 23rd – 200m individual medley; 29th in both the 100m freestyle and 100m breaststroke; and 33rd – 100m backstroke. A combination of age and the actual events meant the club rankings were not affected although overall the swimmers did get closer to appearing in the top 50. However, of the 19 PBs there were some noteworthy improvements, the top five being – a 19.08 second improvement by Irys in her 400m freestyle. Irys also recorded an 8.02 second PB in her 200m individual medley, 10.52 second PB for Adam in his 400m freestyle, 8.80 second PB for Caleb in his 100m individual medley, 7.48 second PB for Medeea-Miriam in her 100m butterfly. Ava had a few first swims but had a 1.78 second pb in her 50m breaststroke.Adam was joined by Ethan Pate at the Swim West Lothian distance time trial and it is not really the finishing position that is important but the actual time recorded. Very pleasingly both swimmers recorded impressive swims which did have an impact on the club’s all-time top 50 short course rankings. Adam recorded a time of 10 minutes 6.37 seconds for his 800m freestyle. As explained in a previous ‘Pathway to the Top’ article, the 800m Freestyle male ranking does not have many entries, but Adams time puts him in at 13th place out of a total of 18, which for a 12 year old is quite an achievement. Also, quite an achievement, this time for an 11 year old, is Ethan’s time of 3 minutes 19.14 seconds, in his 200m butterfly. This ranking did have a full complement of 50 swimmers but his time puts Ethan into the rankings in 47th place and makes him the only 11 year old in the rankings. However, this means we lose a swimmer from the rankings and that is Robbie Glachan, whose time of 3 minutes 34.19 seconds was set at Carnegie in December 2007. The time for entry to the 200m butterfly, male ranking, now stands at 3 minutes 29.44 seconds.