North District Age Group Championships, Inverness, 6-7 March 2010

South Mainland ASC was represented at the North District Age Group championships by brothers Donnie and Eddie Price. Donnie, 13, swam 11 events in the 13/14 age group, and successfully broke pb times for every event. His weekend started off with a super 6 second improvement in his 200m butterfly with a 2.44.00. In his next race, the 100m freestyle, he crept nearer to breaking the 1 minute mark with a 1.00.79.

After another pb in the 200m IM, Donnie then produced an excellent 4.33.58 for the 400m freestyle and sixth place, the fastest of the 13 year old boys. The afternoon’s results were a satisfying 1.10.12 for his 100m butterfly followed shortly later with a 2.56.88 for the 200m breaststroke. In the last session of the day, Donnie had a terrific swim in the 1500m freestyle. Aiming to break 18 minutes he smashed 24 seconds off his entry time for a 17.43.12, which earned him the silver medal.

Sunday’s events started with a 2.10.63 for the 200m freestyle. Then in the 800m freestyle he swam very well to finish in 9.23.77, only missing out on third place by a mere 0.19 seconds. Donnie’s last session produced a pb in the 100m breaststroke and a chunky 7 seconds improvement in his time for the 400m IM.

Eddie, 11, swam 3 events in the 10-12 year age group. His competition got off to a great start by taking 3 seconds off his 100m freestyle time with a 1.08.97, and gained him a place in the final, where he moved up one place to finish 7th. Eddie was also 7th in the 200m freestyle where he swam 7 seconds faster than his entry time for a new pb of 2.27.51. In the 200 breaststroke Eddie had another tremendous swim with a 3.18.13 finishing in 5th place.

Shetland Junior Age Group Championships - February 2010

The Shetland Junior Age Group Championships was a great success for the youngest of the South Mainland swimmers, with the trophies for the top girl and boy in the 8 years and younger going to Erraid Davies and Seumas Mackay. Both won all 4 of their 25m races, and they also achieved first place in the 9 & under 50m freestyle events. Nine more youngsters took part in the gala, some winning medals, and all having super swims.

Competing in the Girls eight and under age group were Jasmin Smith, Kirsten Keay, Sarah-Marie Riise and Ruth Morris. Jasmin won the silver medal in the breaststroke and bronze in the butterfly. She came 4th in the backstroke, 5th in freestyle and 8th in the 50m freestyle. Kirsten also won 2 medals, a silver for butterfly, bronze for breaststroke and came 6th in freestyle and 8th in backstroke, with a very good 5th for her 50m freestyle.

Sarah-Marie was just below medal places with 4th in butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle and a 5th in backstroke. In the 50m freestyle she came 9th. Ruth swam good races to come 5th in the butterfly, 6th in backstroke and 7th in breaststroke and freestyle with a 10th place for the 50 freestyle.

Sophie Black swam in the 9 year age group and came home with a silver medal in butterfly and bronzes for backstroke and freestyle, and just missed a medal with her 4th place finish in breaststroke. She finished 6th in the 50 m freestyle.

In the 10year age group, Sophie Morris had a very good day. Swimming 50m in all her races, she produced excellent times to gain silver medals in the butterfly and backstroke, and made bronze for the freestyle. In the breaststroke she came 5th.

Rachel Keay also swam in this age group. Having only recently returned to the pool due to injury, she too produced good swims in the 50m events with a 6th place in the backstroke and 7th in breaststroke and 11th in the freestyle.

The youngest of the boys competing for South Mainland was Dylan Black. He won silver medals in the backstroke and the freestyle came 4th in breaststroke. Bobby Laurenson was also a medallist. In the 9 year age group he won silver for breaststroke and bronze for the butterfly and came 4th in the backstroke and freestyle with 5th place in the 9 and under 50m freestyle.

All swimmers were a credit to the club, their coaches and their parents.

Elgin Spring Meet, Buckie Pool - 20-21 February 2010

Two South Mainland ASC swimmers attended the Elgin Spring Meet, at Buckie Pool.

Eddie Price, 11, had a tremendous weekend breaking PBs and winning medals in each event in the 10-11 year age group, and finishing overall runner up to Aberdeen Dolphin, Jack Watson.

In the 50 metre races, he took 4 seconds off his entry time in the breaststroke with 43.07 and came first. In the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle he came 3rd in each very closely fought race. However, it was in the longer distance, 200m races, that Eddie really shone. In the backstroke he took a huge 8 seconds off his time for a 2.53.96, and finished fourth. In the breaststroke there was a 4 second improvement for a 3.20.69, a clear 9seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Again in the freestyle, he was the clear winner with a 2.31.63. But his most remarkable swim came in the tough 200m butterfly, taking 2nd place by knocking an astounding 38 seconds off his time to finish in 3.13.42, only one second behind the winner.

Eddie also swam in the open 400m freestyle as the youngest competitor and successfully chopped 9 seconds off his time to touch in 5.16.96.

Kirsty Laurenson, 13, swam well in her 8 races over the weekend. She finished close to entry times for her 200m freestyle and backstroke and in the butterfly she finished in 7th position. The 50m sprints in these strokes gave her more success. In an event that saw four Shetland girls in the top 7, she swam a great 50m freestyle to win her heat in 31.98 which earned her 7th place. A 2 second improvement was achieved in her backstroke with a 37.59. Kirsty’s highest place and a well deserved 4th place medal was awarded for a 2 second PB in the 50m butterfly in 34.55.

Edinburgh International on Tour, Tollcross Pool, Glasgow, 13-14 February 2010

Representing South Mainland ASC, Donnie Price,13, gained valuable long course experience swimming 8 events in the boys 13-14 year age group. On the Saturday, he started off the weekend with a long course PB in the 100m backstroke and followed this by another long course PB for 200m breaststroke. Following this trend he completed the afternoon with a further 2 PBs for the 200m backstroke and a 1.24.79 in the 100m breaststroke gave him a time eligible to enter the Scottish Age Groups in April.

More successful swims were accomplished on Sunday with races in freestyle and butterfly. A good, strong swim in the 100m fly resulted in a PB of 1.12.14 gaining him his second Scottish Age Group time. In the 100m freestyle he swam a 1.02.21 and in the 200m freestyle a 2.14.91, both events breaking PB times set a fortnight earlier in the same pool. Finally, tackling the challenge of long course 200m butterfly for the first time since last year, Donnie finished with substantial improvement in time.

SMASC Members Recieving a Cheque from SolutionX - December 2009

Shetland Senior Age Group Championships - November 2009

Buckie Mini Meet - 14th November 2009

Eight-year-old Erraid Davies recently travelled south to compete in the Buckie Mini Meet and was delighted to return home with a medal from each of her 25 metre races.

The lively one-day event attracted many swimmers aged 8 – 11 from across the North District.

In her first race of the day, 25m backstroke, Erraid gained a bronze with a PB of 21.12. She followed with a gold, with a time of 19.15 in her favourite stroke, the butterfly.

Later came a silver place and another PB of 24.18 in the breaststroke and finally silver in the freestyle in a time equalling her PB with 18.15.

Her results meant she came second overall in the 8 year girls.

Erraid was given funding for her trip from the Callum Younger Reach Fund.

North District Sprint Championships, Inverness - 3rd October 2009

Three swimmers from South Mainland Amateur Swimming Club qualified for the North District Sprint Championships.

Competing in all four events in the 10-12 year age group, 12 year old Darin Eldridge had a very good day which started with a PB of 32.55 in the 50m freestyle. He swam well in his second race of the morning, the 50m butterfly, and returned after lunch to PB his 50m breaststroke with a time of 42.42 which earned him a place in the final as eighth fastest qualifier. Before the final, he swam the 50m backstroke and touched on his PB. To finish off his day, Darin had a super swim in the breaststroke final and produced another PB of 42.01 to finish in 7th place.

In the 13-14 year age group, Sarah Keay swam the same events as Darin and like him broke PBs for two of her strokes and was on her PBs for the other two. She improved her freestyle to finish in 31.31, and shaved a fraction off her breaststroke time for a 40.03 which resulted in 11th place - her highest place of the day.

Donnie Price, 13, swam in this age group, and also had qualified for the open 100m Individual Medley. He successfully managed to produce PBs in all 5 events. His biggest improvement was a 2sec PB time of 37.81 for 50m breaststroke and his highest place for the day was 10th in butterfly with a 32.22.

South Mainland ASC would like to thank Mainlands, Northlink and Freefield Pharmacy for their support.

Shetland Junior Sprints - September 2009