Brae boys win national swimming titles in Glasgow

Brae High School pupils Felix Gifford and Calum Maccoll were both crowned national champions at the weekend’s Scottish Schools swimming finals in Glasgow.

Felix was up first in the 100 metres butterfly. Taking the first 50m at a steady pace, he turned on the speed for the second hundred to power to the finish to take the silver medal, missing out on the gold by less than a second.

Calum swam the 200m freestyle in the second session and like his team mate he did a well-paced first 100m and then put the pressure on the other competitors in the final 100m, pulling further and further away to win his first Scottish national title by four seconds.

The last session saw Felix swim his favourite event, the 200m butterfly, and after again pacing the first 100m well he powered away in the second 100m to win Brae’s second national title of the meet. In the process he set a new open Shetland record with 2.08.85, over three seconds better than the previous best.

The last event was swum by Calum in the 100m freestyle. Again in a very close race he was just touched out into third place.

Both swimmers said they would like to thank the Brae High School for supporting them in the national finals, and giving them the chance to show Scotland what talent there was at the Shetland school.