Early success for swimmers at Scottish Age Group Championships in Glasgow

Isles swimmers Donnie Price and Andrea Strachan won silver and bronze medals respectively on the first day of the Scottish National Age Group Championships in Glasgow.

Donnie took silver yesterday in the 1,500 metres freestyle for 14-year-old boys, while Andrea finished third in the 10m breastroke for 16-18 girls.

The pair are among 10 Shetland swimmers at the Tollcross Leisure Centre and are joined by Amy Harper, Callum MacGregor, Megan Petursdottir and Sarah Williamson from Lerwick team, Felix Gifford, Calum MacCall and Logan Jamieson from Delting Dolphins and Donnie’s brother Eddie from South Mainland.

Donnie had a fight on his hands and came from behind to secure the second place while Amy put in a personal best performace in the morning’s 400m freestyle, narrowly missing out on the bronze medal.

Andrea narrowly missed out on the silver medal with City of Aberdeen Swimmer Hayley Monteith touching just ahead. The event was won Corrie Scott from South Lanarkshire who will be joining the Edinburgh University team next year where Andrea now does most of her training.

In the final of the 16-18 years 200m butterfly, 16-year-old Felix Gifford narrowly missed out on a place on the podium. Turning for the last 50m in fifth place Felix’s sheer determination saw him pull back to fourth at the finish, losing out on the bronze by just three tenths of a second.

Felix and Callum Macgregor went head to head in the final of the 100m freestyle, and on this occasion Felix narrowly beat Callum by just two-tenths of a second to finish fifth with Callum sixth.

In the final of the 14 years boys’ 100m freestyle Donnie put in a gutsy performance. He was placed ninth going into the final and was unable to improve on this placing although he recorded a faster time.

Sarah narrowly missed out on the medals in the final of the girls’ 13 years 100m breaststroke. She got off to a fantastic start and was just beaten into third place by Ruth Gordon from the Isle of Skye.

Megan had set herself a goal of reaching one final and she did that on day one, qualifying for the final of the 14 years girls’ 100m breaststroke. Her 10th place finish in the final was a great achievement for the 14-year-old.