NEW Scottish Nationals Report
Congratulations to our swimmers who competed at Scottish Nationals
Several of Team GAW’s Junior and Youth swimmers concluded their Short Course season with a bang at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, taking on a star studded field at the Open Scottish Nationals.
Friday belonged to age-groupers Naomi Parker, Elif Celikay, and Ellie Houghton who competed in the 100m breaststroke (Naomi/Elif) and 200m butterfly (Ellie/Naomi), gaining valuable national experience, and collecting PBs along the way. Ellie recorded a new age group club record in the 200m fly.
Ryan Zhao competed in 7 events over the 3 days, picking up best times in the 400m IM and 50m backstroke, and collecting age group club records in both events.
Not to be out-done, senior swimmer Sarah Wright had an equally busy time of it, competing well all weekend, and had stand-out performances in the 50m butterfly and 100m IM in which Sarah smashed club records in both events.
Top performers over the weekend had to be seniors Alex McGill and Zoe Price who bagged 4 club records (2 apiece) between them.
Zoe dropped an extraordinary 2.5s off her previous best (achieved just last month) in the 100m breaststroke, moving her into the top 20 in British rankings for the event. In the 50m event Zoe improved to a top 10 (British) ranking. Zoe competed in B finals for both events.
Alex McGill (14yrs) was without a doubt the breakout star of the weekend, improving her 200m bk personal best (again recorded just last month) by an astonishing 9 seconds and smashing the club record in the process. She repeated the trick in the 100m backstroke, taking off 3 seconds and winning herself a new pair of TYR goggles in the process as well as bagging another club record. Alex also PB’d her 50m backstroke to give her a fantastic hat-trick. Alex moved up in the British Rankings to career high top 20, and top 25 positions in the 200m and 100m backstroke events respectively, placing her firmly in Nationals contention for 2019.
As a team, GAW’s junior female medley team picked up a top 5 position (16yrs and under) where Alex McGill (bk), Zoe Price (brs), Ellie Houghton (fly), and Sarah Wright (fr) all smashed individual PBs in a tremendous team effort.
Well done to all that competed in what was a fantastic end of season experience.
Bring on 2019!!
Paul Armstrong
