South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club swimmer, Donnie Price, 12, was awarded the trophy for top boy age 10-12 at the North District Age Group Championships in Inverness. On his way to achieving this title he won 4 gold (100m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle), 1 silver (100m breaststroke), and 3 bronze medals (200m breaststroke, 200m IM and 400m IM). In the 200m backstroke he was placed 4th, 7th in 100m butterfly and 8th in 100m backstroke. In all but the 400m IM he produced personal best times, lowering his previously set Shetland Age Group records.
A convincing winner in the 4 freestyle events, Donnie was aiming for a time under 10 minutes in the 800m and was thrilled to hit the touch pad well under target in an excellent time of 9.52.68. In other races he experienced tough challenges with his competitors being equal or faster. After Saturday afternoon’s heats of the 100m breaststroke, 4 boys had qualified for the evening final with only 1/2 second between them. A tremendous race for the youngsters pushed the first three to each swim a massive 2 seconds faster than in the heats, with Donnie just being beaten into second place by 7/100 second.
Day two of the competition continued with plenty more events, again some with evening finals. Having knocked over 2 seconds off his entry time, Donnie found himself ranked in 3rd place for the 200IM. Determined not to lose out on a medal he swam a superb race, finished 3rd and had taken a further 2 seconds off his PB, thus his biggest improvement of the weekend.
South Mainland’s other swimmers who had qualified for the Championships for the first time, were Darin Eldridge 11, and Sarah Keay 12. Only a few 11 year olds were competing, and Darin swam very well in his 5 races. He had a brilliant 2 sec PB in the 100m freestyle finishing in 1.10.59. His 200m breaststroke was his highest placed event finishing in 11th and his remaining events were all on entry times.
Due to illness, Sarah reduced her events to just 3; 100m free, 100m breaststroke & 100m butterfly. All 3 races left her exhausted but she had performed tremendously well to finish each just a fraction of a second outside PBs.
South Mainland ASC would like to express their thanks and appreciation of the support and sponsorship towards this trip, given by Northlink, Mainlands, Dunrossness Community Council, and Sandwick Community Council.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated before posting.