Head to Head - May 2010

City of Glasgow Open Meet - 1-2 May 2010

Donnie and Eddie Price, swimming for South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club competed at the City of Glasgow Open Meet last weekend at Tollcross Pool, Glasgow.

Returning to this venue only three weeks after his successes at the Scottish Age Groups, Donnie, 13, did remarkably well to improve on his times in the 7 events swum then and also broke best times in a further 2 races. In the shorter 100metre distances tiny fractions of a second were chipped off his previous best times in freestyle and butterfly, his breaststroke just under a second, and 1.3 seconds in his backstroke. In the 200 metres backstroke, a race that he hadn’t swum since February, he gained a 7 second Pb, while in the 200m breaststroke he was thrilled to improve his time by 5 seconds for a 2.54.26 and, as the fastest 13year old, finish in 4th place in the 13/14 year age group. In the mid distance 400m freestyle, he dropped his time by 3 seconds and again came top amongst the 13year olds with 7th place.

Becoming recognised as a very good distance swimmer, Donnie had his best result of the weekend in the 1500m freestyle. Seeded in the first heat, while some lads started off at a fast pace, Donnie started at a slightly slower pace but by 300metres had settled in to a rate that he was able to maintain. He started overtaking then increasing his distance ahead of the all the other competitors and by the final third of the race he was well in front. Touching first in the heat, in 17.55.19, he had knocked an incredible 13 seconds off his 3 week old previous best time, and had achieved his target of gaining a Scottish National Open time. This was also his highest placed event, winning bronze behind two14year olds.

For younger brother Eddie, 11, the competition was only the second occasion competing in a 50metre pool, having only swum a single length race at the Scottish Schools. This meant that each of his 9 races would be a long course personal best. He set out to match or improve all his entry times, which were conversions of short course times.

He achieved his aim in all but 2 races, but in one of these, the 200m breaststroke, his time of 3.22.47 was still extremely good and, like big brother Donnie, he came 4th – and the fastest 11 year old in the 9-12 year age group. Eddie coped excellently with the challenge of long course butterfly by slicing a huge 6 seconds off his time for a 1.26.76 to come 8th. Another challenge was racing the 800m freestyle, having only ever raced this distance once before, but again he went well under his time by 15 seconds to finish 9th in a time of 10.56.18. In his last race of the weekend he had another brilliant freestyle race in the 400m where he smashed his entry time by 10seconds to round off a most successful long course meet.

Inverness Graded Meet - 1st May 2010

Thirteen year old Morven Davies had a very good day of competition as the only South Mainland swimmer competing at this year’s Inverness Graded Meet.

In her first race in the girls 13/14 years age group, Morven took almost 3 seconds of her entry time in the 100m breaststroke to finish in 5th place with a 1.45.15. Following this, she knocked 2 seconds off in the 100m IM with a 1.33.70, and in a very tight race came 7th – which was only 1 second behind the swimmer who took the bronze. The morning’s schedule finished with another 3 second PB with a time of 1.36.98 in the 100m backstroke.

The afternoon started with the 100m butterfly, a challenging event for Morven. A huge PB was gained with her time of 1.50.33.

The last event, the 100m freestyle resulted in her biggest success of the day, by taking the gold with a time of 1.20.08, an excellent 4 seconds better than her previous best.

A full quota of PBs was gained during the day showing all round improvement.

Scottish Masters Short Course Championships, Tollcross, Glasgow - April 2010

Jan Price, representing South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club, competed at the Scottish Masters Short Course Championships. Her fourth time at this meet, she increased the number of events entered to 12, spread over Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon and duly discovered that this was the most number of events swam by anyone in the women’s 50-54 year age group. Despite having little rest between races she successfully managed to slightly better her 2009 times in all but 3 races and came 2nd in 8 events and 3rd in a further 2. However it was in a race where she only managed 4th place that she had undoubtedly her best race. In the last session was the 400 freestyle where she was in the lane next to Carolyn Swanson from Thurso who had a similar entry time. Jan went out faster and by the 300 metres had a 2 metre lead. Carolyn had held back in the early stages and was more able to put in a really fast final 100m and by the last turn had closed the gap. The last length was an all out sprint finish by both, resulting in Jan being beaten by a finger tip 0.08sec, but was delighted to make a Pb as did Carolyn. Both are looking forward to a re-match next year.

As well as having a great time in her own swimming, the competition always provides Jan the chance to chat to and watch other Masters swimmers, some who are new to the sport, others who have been competing for decades, but very many, like herself returning to competitive swimming after many years away from the sport. One such swimmer, that Jan took the opportunity to talk to was 50 year old Judy Hattle, who swam up to the age of 20, then returned to competing after having a family. Little did Jan know that just 15 minutes after their chat, she was to witness Judy setting a new WORLD record in the 200m butterfly – certainly THE highlight of the championships.

As in previous years, Jan opted to substitute receiving medals for a donation of £1 per medal to this year’s nominated charity Macmillan Cancer Support.