Swimmers return with excellent results

Last weekend 11 young Shetland swimmers representing three Shet­land clubs competed in two competitions on the mainland and achieved some outstanding results.

Six of them travelled to swim in the InCAS distance meet at the Fife Institute in Glenrothes while five took part in the North District Development Meet held at the Banff Academy Swimming pool.

Craig Nicolson, 14, from Lerwick ASC, Nicole Petursdottir, 14, Megan Petursdottir, 12, and Sarah Wil­liamson, 12, all from Shetland Competitive ASC, and Donnie Price, 12, and Eddie Price, 10, from the South Mainland ASC were competing in Glenrothes. Craig was swimming in six events. He started the competition with a superb swim in the 200m breaststroke. He achieved a personal best time for the 200m and the 100m split and broke Shetland records for both distances. He also broke the InCAS meet record winning the gold medal in a time of 2.34.33.

In the 200m IM he achieved a two second PB, winning the silver medal. On the Sunday he swam just outside his PB in 200m freestyle to finish in silver medal position.

He maintained his 400m IM time of just under five minutes for another silver medal. He then improved his 200m backstroke time by five seconds and his 400m freestyle time by seven seconds to win another silver medal.

Nicole was swimming in four events, the 200m IM, 200m butterfly, 200m backstroke and 200m free­style. Nicole, who has been struggling with injury this year, swam just outside her times in her events.

Her sister Megan was swimming seven events. In the 200m IM Megan finished fifth with a three second PB. In the 200m butterfly she took nine seconds off her time finishing in fourth place. In the 200m breaststroke she swam just outside her PB to finish in sixth place.

On Sunday she shaved a fraction of a second off her 200m backstroke time to finish in sixth place. She then took 12 seconds from her 400m freestyle and one second from her 200m freestyle. In her final event of the day she took an impressive 14 seconds from her 400m IM to win the bronze medal.

Sarah was swimming in five events. In the 200m IM she took nine seconds off her time. In the 200m breaststroke she took four seconds off her time, winning the bronze medal. She only just missed breaking the three minutes by a fraction of a second. In 200m backstroke she got a nine second PB, in 200m freestyle it was an 11 second PB and in 400m IM she took an excellent 23 seconds from her time.

For Donnie this was his last chance to break Shetland records in the 11/12 year age group before his 13th birthday at the end of the month and he achieved this in five out of seven events.

He started with 200m breast­stroke, finishing fourth with a six second PB. In the 1500m freestyle, he smashed his own PB and Shetland record and set a meet record with a gold winning time of 18.16.53. With very little time to recover from the 1500m, 20 minutes later he swam the 200m IM in a time just outside his best. Sunday’s first race for Donnie was the 200m freestyle and once again he achieved a PB, finishing in silver medal position. In the 400m IM he improved his PB by a 12 seconds, finishing in 6th place.

In his final race, the 400m freestyle, Donnie once again had an outstanding race, lowered his Shetland age group record time to 4.41.43 and again finished in silver medal position.

Eddie also started the competition with the 200m breaststroke where he achieved a 13 second PB which earned him a silver medal.

In 200m IM he finished in fourth place, cutting 10 seconds from his PB. The second day of comp­etition resulted in Eddie breaking Shetland records in the 10 years and under age group in all three of his events. In a brilliant race in the 200m freestyle he lowered his previously set record to 2.40.15 and gained a bronze medal. In his next race, the 200m backstroke, he finished in a time of 3.03.59. Finally, in the 400m freestyle he swam a phenomenal 38 seconds faster than his entry time producing a 5.32.59 and took a very well deserved third place.

Meanwhile in Banff Megan and Chloe Nicolson (LASC) and Karl Elridge, Kirsty Laurenson and James Morris (SMASC) were competing.

Megan, who is 13, was only competing in two events. In the 200m butterfly she took 11 seconds off her time to win the bronze medal and in 200m breaststroke she swam just outside her PB to finish sixth.

For her sister Chloe, 11, it was her first distance meet on the mainland and she was swimming in five events. She got a speed ticket (finished with a time faster than the cut off time) in the 200m freestyle with a credible 20 second improvement on her time. She then improved her 400m IM time by an impressive 26 seconds to be awarded another speed ticket.

On Sunday she took 24 seconds off her 400m freestyle to be awarded yet another speeding ticket and in 200m breaststroke she won the gold medal with a seven second PB. In her last race of the day, the 200m backstroke, she took 15 seconds from her time but unfortunately was disqualified for a mistimed turn.

Karl was swimming in the 14 and over age group in three events. His first event was the 200m IM in which he achieved an impressive 12 seconds PB. Next was 200m Freestyle with an eight second PB. His final race of the weekend was the 200m backstroke where he achieved another PB this time of seven seconds.

Kirsty, 13, who was competing in five events, started the day with a four second PB in the 200m backstroke, finishing in fourth place. Next was the 200m butterfly where she achieved a five second PB. In the 400m freestyle she led her heat and took an incredible 21 seconds off her entry time. In the 200m IM she got an impressive 11 second PB which won her the silver medal. Her last event was the 200m freestyle where she gained another PB – this time it was by four seconds. James was swimming in the 12 year old age group in three events. First for James was the 400m freestyle where he took a fantastic 15 seconds off his entry time; this great effort rewarded him with third place and a bronze medal. In the 200m breaststroke he took an almighty 20 seconds off his entry time. In the 200m IM he matched his entry time.

This has given Chloe a total of five and Eddie a total of four bronze qualifying times for the North District training squad. This is a great opportunity for these young swimmers to be part of the District Regional training programme for the first time.

Thanks must go to the coaches and parents and finally compliments to the children on their hard work at the competitions.