WEST DISTRICT SPRINTS – AYR

2 District Champions

Superb Meet…. but still unlucky 7^th’s

The Annual West District Sprints took place at Ayr last weekend. As usual the weather was fine and for early September, the beach was quite inviting. Some swimmers were observed entering the sea, somewhat colder than a few weeks earlier at the Open Water Championships! Maybe Graeme Park’s beach barbequed sausages had something special in them.

Sixteen swimmers were at the meet, five more than last year. Last year there were 34 individual swims, this year there were 47. A number of swimmers have moved up age group so fewer medals were anticipated, some swimmers who would have qualified and medalled, forgot to enter in time. Next year more swimmers should be in the same age group.

Ryan Doherty and Ghais Guarin took Gold in the 50 Metre Breaststroke in their age group. Ryan also took Silver in the 100m IM and finalled in the 50metres Freestyle coming joint 5^th. Ghais also made the final of the 100m Individual Medley coming 6^th.

Most pleasing was the overall performance of the Girls, and although no finals were made there were several 7^th places just missing out on Finals. Indeed even the Girls relay came 7^th by 1/100^th of a second!

Emma Christie, Emma Wotherspoon, Claire Wotherspoon, Erin Holmes were all in good form and put in some good personal bests. Newcomers to the sprints performed well too, Amber Biggam swam well the 50 meter Breaststroke, as did her younger sister Lauren. Naimh McKay who has missed out in the past did particularly well in the 50m freestyle and will now join the District Squad. Jenny Anderson gave a great performance also in the 50m Breaststroke. Lina Guarin is another great prospect with 2 more years in the 12 and Under both at Butterfly and particularly Breaststroke.

Cameron Park put in some good swims but being in the lower end of the age group made it particularly difficult for him. Still, he was amongst the best if not the best 13 year old boy.

It has always been difficult to get Girls at Rutherglen under 32 seconds for a 50 metre freestyle and there are now quite a number to choose from. The improvements have been so great that swimmers with times that would have easily been selected for the relays did not make it. It remains to be seen who will be the first to break 30 seconds?

Sarah Harvey has improved tremendously recently at Butterfly and put in a sound performance and a fine 100m Individual relay with another year at the same age group.

It was also pleasing to see swimmers travelling just for the Relay events and the experience and Dorothea McInnes, Nicole Gunn and Cara Rooney put in some good performances too.

Lindsay Young, the Clubs Head Coach said “We are off to a good start, the Club’s swimmers now have to put the Summer holidays behind them and start the period of hard work building up to January. There is a good prospect of record number of swimmers making the Scottish Championships, however only hard work will achieve his with 100% commitment to training.”

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