Alloa Open - June 2008

South Mainland ASC was represented at the Alloa Open by brothers Donnie and Eddie Price. The competition, held at Bellshill attracted swimmers from throughout Scotland and all races provided the boys with some excellent races against stiff opposition.

 

Donnie (11) swam all 7 races in the 11/12 year age group. His first two swims were the 200m butterfly and the 200m IM, and in both finished in times just outside his personal bests finishing in 6th and 4th places. However things started to look up in the second session, when he had a terrific race in the 200m breaststroke to produce a 2 second PB with a time of 3.13.22 and finished in 5th place. Such a close race it was that there was only 0.5sec between 2nd and 5th places.

 

On the Sunday, Donnie’s first event was the 200m backstroke. Once more he was within a second of his PB and was placed 6th. Less than an hour later was the 400m freeestyle, which was a fantastic race to watch. Four of the boys in his heat were from big clubs, Warrender, Grangemouth and Ren96 and the other was Matthew Anderson from Oban. A credit to small clubs, Matthew and Donnie were out in front throughout the race, along with Dale McAnish of Grangemouth who just out-touched them at the finish. With 3rd place Donnie had reached another milestone, by going under 5 minutes for the first time with a time of 4.59.33, an excellent 8 second PB.

 

After lunch the same boys met in the pool for the 200m freestyle. Once again the Grangemouth lad was just a fraction of a second ahead. This time though, Donnie gained the silver in a 2 sec PB of 2.22.50 with Matthew a fingernail behind. The last event for Donnie was the tough 400m IM. He had a fabulous 9sec PB, to finish in 4th place in 6.00.39, a new Shetland record for the event in the 11/12 year age group.

 

For younger brother Eddie, 9, this was his first experience in competing at this level of competition, with swimmers up to age 20. He swam one race in each session - all were 50m events. In his first race, butterfly, he had a brilliant swim to finish in 3rd place in a PB of 45.60. Knocking off a second in the freestyle, he once again was 3rd in a time of 36.77. The second day started with backstroke and this time he took a massive 4 sec off his previous best with a 44.26, finishing in 5th position. In his breaststroke he came a respectful 7th place with a time of 53.90 just a fraction of a second outside his best.

 

The trip combined swimming with collecting big brother Rory (home for the summer), and finished off with a fun event - Sunday night was spent camping out in a tent at their big cousins in Tillicoultry!