Eleven year old Donnie Price from South Mainland ASC was the youngest swimmer from Shetland competing in last weekend’s North District Age group Championships in Inverness. He qualified for seven events in the 10-12 year age group, and in every race produced a personal best time (pb).
His first race on Saturday was the 100m freestyle and smashing his previous best time by almost 3 seconds, he swam it in 1:07.09. With this superb time he was 7th fastest qualifier for the final and the only 11 year old in the race. In the evening’s final he improved his position and narrowly missed out in medal placings finishing in a very creditable 4th place. Earlier, in the heats of the 100m breaststroke, Donnie had a 4 sec pb with a time of 1:30.69 and again qualified for the final.
In a tremendous race he broke his heat time, and finished 6th in a 1:29.92. Again he was the top 11 year old. He was also the fastest 11 year old in the 200m freestyle in which he was 7th overall in an excellent 2:26.66. In his remaining 4 events, Donnie finished as second fastest 11 year old. In a time of 5:07.84, a 10 second improvement on his entry time, he was placed 8th in the 400m freestyle and came 12th in the 200m breaststroke in 3:15.16 (a 3sec pb). On day 2 of the championships,
Donnie came 9th in 100m butterfly with a 5 sec pb of 1:24.20, and was placed 10th in the 200m individual medley with a time off 2:53.21, just under 5 seconds faster than his previous best.
