Shetland swimmers net six gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals

Five swimmers from the Lerwick team returned with six gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals from the weekend’s Westhill Invitational meet in Aberdeenshire.

They also recorded 31 personal best times at the event, which attracts some of the top competitors from the North District as well as some of Dundee City Aquatics’ finest swimmers.

Amy Harper and Andrea Strachan competed in the 16-and-over age group on day one and got the medal haul under way immediately. Amy took gold with a lifetime best performance in the 200 metes freestyle while Andrea took the bronze, also with lifetime best performance.

Scottish national age group breaststroke champion Sarah Williamson, 12, was competing in the 12-13 age group, and she took the gold in both 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Thirteen-year-old Megan Petursdottir finished a creditable fifth.

Andrea swam a lifetime best time in the 100m breaststroke to take the silver, beaten to the gold medal by Olympic swimmer Hannah Miley.

Amy and Andrea were also in action in the final of the 100m freestyle, where this time both girls were up against Miley. Amy took the silver medal while Andrea finished a close third to take the bronze.

Amy also took silver in the 400m freestyle with a 12-second improvement on her previous best time.

Callum Macgregor continued his fine form in the 16-and-over 100m freestyle, taking the silver medal, and then went on to take silver in the 50m butterfly.

Megan finished a creditable fifth in the final of the 100m breastroke, while in the 100m freestyle her time of 1.05.59 was a four-second improvement on her PB.

Day two saw more success, beginning in the 200m individual medley where Andrea won the silver with Amy taking the bronze.

In the 100m IM Andrea produced a personal best performance to reach the final where she took silver, while the final of the 200m backstroke saw her take yet another silver.

Andrea and Amy went head to head in the finals of the 100m backstroke and freestyle. Amy took silver in the 100m backstroke with Andrea taking bronze, and in the freestyle again Amy took silver and Andrea bronze. Callum Macgregor won gold in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 50m freestyle.

Megan Petursdottir also performed extremely well, coming back from a back injury. She swam in 16 races, three of them finals, and achived seven PBs.

Sarah Williamson achieved a PB in the 100m IM and narrowly missed out on a place in the final of the 50m breaststroke.

Coach Petur Petursson said: “It was a stunning performance from all.”