Scottish Swimming’s Grand Prix Open Meet Series was launched last weekend, and taking part in the inaugural meet at East Kilbride in the West District round was 15 year old Donnie Price, representing South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club. The recently refurbished Dollan Aqua Centre, the oldest 50 metre ‘long course’ pool in Scotland, originally built in imperial measure 55 yards, attracted a good number of top swimmers, many who, like Donnie, are in one of the Scottish Squads. He lined up against other competitors from the Youth Development Squad in each of his 6 races. Saturday morning started off with a good swim in the 100m breaststroke where he produced a long course PB and later on matched this in the 100m freestyle.
After an unusually quiet day for Donnie, he had a more typical Sunday with 4 races in the morning session. In his first event, the 400m freestyle, he demonstrated very good pacing and another long course PB. Finishing 7th overall meant he had achieved a place in the evening’s ‘B’ final. First of all he had to compete in the 200m breaststroke, the 200m freestyle and 200m IM, all resulting in times equalling PBs. At the beginning of the evening finals, it was learnt that due to a swimmer withdrawing Donnie would now have a place in the ‘A’ final and hence he found himself lined up with the top batch of older and bigger swimmers. He produced another good swim with a time just a touch outside his heat time and finished, much as expected in 6th place.
Andrea Strachan, Amy Harper & Donnie Price were in action at Scottish Swimming’s Grand Prix Open Meet Series which was launched last weekend, with the inaugural meet at East Kilbride in the West District. The recently refurbished Dollan Aqua Centre, the oldest 50 metre ‘long course’ pool in Scotland, originally built in imperial measure 55 yards, attracted a good number of top swimmers, many of whom, like the Shetland trio are in Scottish National Squads.
Always a difficult time of year to compete after the excesses of Christmas and disruption to training, the girls managed to find their form. Andrea took Gold in the 50m Breaststroke and Silver in the 100m Breaststroke and finished a respectable 4th in the final of the 50m Freestyle. Amy had to share the podium with Sarah Hamilton of South Aberdeenshire as they finished first equal in the 50m freestyle. And in the 100m freestyle Amy claimed the Bronze. Both girls would like to express their thanks to the Shetland Recreational Trust and the staff of the Scalloway Pool for opening for four days between Christmas and New Year to keep the disruption to their training to a minimum.
In each of his 6 races, 15 year old Donnie Price, representing South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club lined up against competitors which included members of the Youth Development Squad that he had trained with in Stirling between Xmas and New Year. Saturday morning started off with a good swim in the 100m breaststroke where he produced a long course PB and later on matched this in the 100m freestyle. After an unusually quiet day for Donnie, he had a more typical Sunday with 4 races in the morning session. In his first event, the 400m freestyle, he demonstrated very good pacing and another long course PB. Finishing 7th overall meant he had achieved a place in the evening’s ‘B’ final. First of all he had to compete in the 200m breaststroke, the 200m freestyle and 200m IM, all resulting in times equalling PBs. At the beginning of the evening finals, it was learnt that due to a swimmer withdrawing Donnie would now have a place in the ‘A’ final and hence he found himself lined up with the top batch of older and bigger swimmers. He produced another good swim with a time just a touch outside his heat time and finished, much as expected in 6th place.
Scottish National Short Course Championships, 15-18 December 2011, Inverness
Representing South Mainland ASC, Donnie Price, 15, competed in twelve events and managed to achieve eight PBs and four top ten places. Having spent the customary 20 hour journey from Shetland to Inverness, Donnie hit the water early Thursday evening for the Men’s 1500m freestyle. In a superbly paced swim he demolished his previous best time with a 27 second improvement for a 16.41.57 and finished in 9th place.
The following day, in the 200m freestyle Donnie hit his target and broke the 2 minutes for the first time with 1.59.87. He then equalled his PB in the 200m backstroke and ended the session with a further PB in the 100m breaststroke with a 1.11.69.
In Friday afternoon’s session Donnie had an extremely good swim in the Boys 15 and under 400m freestyle, and smashed his entry time by six seconds to finish in 6th place with 4.13.88. Following this, he achieved another good PB in the 400m IM.
Saturday morning started with being on his PB in the 200m butterfly. Then in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke he once more broke a PB with a 2.33.58 finishing well up the field in 19th place out of 50. In the afternoon session, he gained 8th place in the Boys’ 1500m freestyle.
On the final day of the championships, Donnie continued to produce PBs. Having only been seeded as reserve in the 200m IM, a 4 second improvement in his entry time resulted in a 2.15.82, moving him up from 46th to 31st position. He then equalled his time for the 100m backstroke and finished off with a final PB of 1.04.12 and 10th place in the 100m IM.
North District Age Group Meet, Inverness, 3-4 December 2011
Seven swimmers from South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club competed at the North District Age Group Meet and each successfully managed to produce personal best times.
The outstanding South Mainland swimmer of the weekend was 11 year old Sophie Morris who had qualified for all eleven events and managed to gain PBs in all but one race. Significant improvements in times came in all strokes and all distances and when combining all strokes in the individual medleys achieved excellent results. In the 400 IM she improved her time by 8 seconds but it was in the 200m IM that Sophie really shone.
Breaking her entry time by 8 seconds earned her a place in the final for 10/11 year age group, where, as her last race over a very busy two days, she broke her earlier time by a further 2 seconds to finish in a 2.52.97 just outside medal position in 4th place.
In the same age group, Curstaidh Mackay, 12, competed in 10 events and gained good PBs in 6 events. Having broken her previous best times in breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly she just missed PBs in the 100m and 200m freestyle. However, she tackled the longer 400m freestyle with great determination and swam it extremely well to knock a whopping 13 seconds off her time for a 5.30.49. Despite the 400m being the last race, two of the South Mainland boys also demonstrated fantastic swims. Darin Eldridge, 14, swimming for the last time at the competition, took 14 seconds off his time and went under 5 minutes for the first time with a 4.58.70. Just a few lanes away he was having a close tussle with James Morris, 13, who fought all the way to finish in 5.01.70, a 12 second PB. Darin competed in 10 events and successfully made seven PBs. After finishing his 100m freestyle in a PB of 1.05.67 he was given some very useful feedback from Ally Whike, Performance Director of Scottish Swimming who had watched the race, yet another where more than one South Mainland boy was seeded in the same heat. Again James was in the mix and equalled his PB. Swimming 9 events he gained 6 PBs in total and some of his best improvements were in the 200m backstroke with a 2.40.91, 200m breaststroke with a 3.14.29 and 200m freestyle with a 2.24.12.
For Philip Hilditch, 14, it was his first visit to the 8 lane pool in Inverness and the biggest competition he has experienced. He coped very well with the demands of a two day meet and came away with a well deserved tally of 5 PBs out of 7 events. He produced a substantial 10 second PB in the tough 400m IM with a 6.07.25 and had an excellent 2 second PB in the 100m freestyle with a 1.08.33, in the same heat as Darin, James and Scott Riise. Like Philip, Scott, 13 was experiencing the competition for the first time. His 100m freestyle was faster than his entry time and equalled a very recent PB. In the 200m freestyle his time improved by 5 seconds and he made an even better 7 second PB in the 200m backstroke, breaking the 3 minute barrier for the first occasion with a 2.57.76.
Youngest of the South Mainland boys, Eddie Price, 13, had qualified for all the events which provided a variety of challenges and results. Many of his swims were within a second of his PB times, but like his team mates managed to achieve PBs. His 200 breaststroke reflected recent improvement in his shorter breaststroke events with a 5 second PB for a 3.03.01 and he chipped a second off his 200m butterfly time where he finished 10th in the 13/14 age group. In the 200m IM his heat time gained him a place in the final of the 13year olds where he finished 7th.
South Mainland ASC would like to thank NorthLink Ferries and Freefield Pharmacy for their support.
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