Inverness Graded Meet - 3rd May 2008

Eleven young swimmers from South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club had an exciting weekend competing at the Inverness Graded Meet last Saturday, and each and every one achieved results displaying tremendous improvement.

This was the first competition south for Eddie Price (9), Sophie Moar (10), Curstaidh Mackay (9), Cara Stevens (9) and eight year old Sophie Morris.

Medals were won, and several of the team swam faster than the cut off time for gold, where instead of a medal, swimmers were presented with ‘speeding tickets’; an award of a certificate and a swim cap printed with ‘Caught speeding in Inverness’!

Eddie Price (9) was the first swimmer of the day to get a ‘speeding ticket’ when he took 5 seconds of his personal best (PB) in the Boys 10 & under 50m freestyle in the fastest time of 37.67sec. Fraser Tait (9) also had a 3sec PB in his heat and came 7th in 43.00. Eddie then won a gold in the 50m back in 48.11 (4 sec PB), and another massive 8sec PB, along with a speeding ticket, was achieved with a time of 45.93 in the 50m butterfly, again the fastest swimmer in the race. In the same heat, James Monaghan (9) swam a time of 47.71 (a huge 6sec PB) earning him a speeding ticket. Finishing in 6th place was Fraser in 1.00.91 (PB).

In the first event of the afternoon session, in the 100m individual medley, Eddie and James along with Scott Riise (9), thrilled the spectators with a race as close as some of the recent World Championship events with only 0.64sec separating them at the finish. Eddie just touched first in 1.38.09, James a close second in1.38.67 and Scott, an even closer third in 1.38.73. Visibly faster than all others in the race, they all were awarded speeding tickets. Fraser had a terrific 8sec PB with a 1.51.27 in the same event, finishing only 2 away from medal placings. Shortly after, in the 50m breaststroke, James and Scott again could hardly be separated but James finished a fingertip ahead in 52.23 (PB) in gold place – Scott in 52.43 (PB), silver place. Eddie who had swum in an earlier heat in 53.08 (8 sec PB) sneaked into bronze place. Fraser also produced a PB with a 1.02.76. Fraser’s turn on the rostrum came, when along with James, Scott and Eddie, the South Mainland boys team won the gold in the 10 & under 200m freestyle relay.

In the 11-12 year age group, Jason Riise (11) won the gold medal for the 100m IM with a time of 1.33.42, a 7 sec chunk off his previous best time, and in 100m backstroke he took a superb 4 sec off his PB time from only the previous weekend to finish in bronze position in 1.34.58. In the 100m butterfly he swam a PB for a 25m pool with a time of 1.49.17.

All six girls swam really well in all their races too, with success running throughout the day. The first awards came in the girls first event, the 10 & under 50m freestyle where the winners of the fantastic swim hats for speeding were Sophie Moar in a 4sec PB time of 39.53 and Curstaidh Mackay in 40.22 – over 6 seconds fasters than her previous best.

In this event, less than 1 sec separated the gold and fifth position – amongst these swimmers was Vhairi Davies (9) who took 5 sec off her best to produce a 41.85, and only just missed out on a medal. Cara Stevens had a terrific swim to produce a 4sec PB in a time of 44.93.

Lucy Morris (10) could hardly wait for her opportunity to try and win a hat, and it came in the 10 & under 50m backstroke, where she found herself in the next lane to her peerie sister, Sophie with team mates Vhairi and Sophie Moar also in the same heat. Another incredibly close race, Lucy touched second in a 3 sec PB of 47.92, too fast for a medal so got the hat she was after. Just one other swimmer separated the two sisters, Sophie won the silver medal in 49.21(PB), just ahead of Sophie Moar who took the bronze in 50.16(PB). Curstaidh knocked 6 sec off her PB to produce a 50.89 and finished 5th. Vhairi improved her PB by a second for a 51.33 (7th) and Cara swam a good 1.00.04.

The 50m butterfly was the event for young Sophie to get her speeding award, where she finished as the second fastest swimmer in 49.07, an outstanding time for an eight year old and an almost unbelievable 13 sec PB. This event resulted with 5 of the entrants receiving speeding awards, which meant that Curstaidh swimming with much improved technique and a huge 9sec PB gained the bronze medal in a time of 55.75. Cara swam well to finish in a 1.08.50.

All the girls swam the 100m IM. Lucy was the fastest of the team with a 1.44.71 (7sec PB) and finished 4th. Sophie Morris was 6th in 1.49.15 (13sec PB), Sophie Moar was 8th in 1.49.15, Curstaidh was 10th in 1.51.80 (17sec PB), Vhairi was 16th in 1.57.29 (7sec PB) and Cara was 19th in 2.04.19 (7.5sec PB).

Silver medal success came in the closely fought 50m breaststroke for Sophie Moar, chopping 2sec off her previous best with a 54.84. Breaking the 1 minute for the first time for this event Sophie Morris swam a 58.85 (3sec PB) and Cara 58.99 (3sec PB). Curstaidh, in her final event of the day once again had a big improvement with a 1.02.35 (6sec PB) and Vhairi swam a 1.03.32.

The very last race for Lucy, Vhairi, Sophie & Sophie was the 200m freestyle relay where they were able to match the boys’ success by winning the gold.

Swimmers appreciated the help from the adult leaders on the trip and the cheerleading team of Mums.