Thurso swimmers impress in round two of North District Age Group Championships
Round two of the North District Age Group Championships in Aberdeen gave 10 Thurso Amateur Swimming Club members further opportunities to experience long course competition and achieve new personal bests as well as potential times for the coming Scottish National Age Groups.
The team consisted of Jed and Tom Armitage, Keira Bain, Craig Campbell, Grace Campbell, Kirsten Coghill, Emily MacDougall, Megan Mackay, Edward Mills and Aiden Williamson. Esme Walker also qualified for three swims but was unable to attend.
TASC team captains Keira and Tom achieved medal success in their strongest events – the 200m butterfly and the 200m backstroke respectively.
The 200m fly is a challenging long course event. Keira paced her race well, holding her entry position to convincingly win silver in a new long course PB of 2:43.11.
This time broke the TASC 16/17 and all-ages club records, which Keira previously held. Keira also competed in the 200m backstroke and 50m fly.
Tom swam in six events, competing at the younger end of the 16/17 age group. His club record bronze medal-winning swim in the 200m back saw him finish strongly in third behind Garioch’s Kyle Mitchell (17) and Elgin’s Lucas Brown (17).
Tom also achieved PB success and reached finals in his 200m individual medley (eighth), 50m fly (10th) and 100m freestyle (sixth). His 100m free saw him improve from 19th to sixth place overall with a new long course PB of 56.97.
Tom’s final events were the 400m free (11th) and 200m fly (seventh).
Jed had five swims during the championships – 50 free, 100m back, 200m free, 50m back and 100m fly. Jed’s highlights were his 50m free where he shaved 2.44 seconds off his previous best to finish in a time of 27.96; his 100m back, where he qualified for the final in the 14/15 age group; and his 200m free, where he improved his long course PB by almost five seconds, finishing strongly in 2:17.81.
Craig’s three events at round two were the 50m and 200m free and 100m back. He swam consistently and was rewarded with PBs in his 50m free (28.86) and 200m free (2:18.09).
This was Grace’s first experience of long course competition so a huge learning curve in her two events – 100m fly and 100m back. Grace achieved long course PBs in both, improving six places in her fly (1:20.14) and two places in her back (1:20.70).
On day one Kirsten competed in the 100m fly and the 400m IM. She too achieved long course PBs in both events. Her IM swim was a particularly challenging event in a 50m pool. Kirsten achieved a time of 6:23.75 and moved up six places.
Kirsten was unable to compete in her further three qualifying events due to illness.
Emily’s packed programme included the 50m and 100m back, 100m fly, 400m IM, 50m and 200m free. She continues to improve across all four strokes and achieved five PBs and reached two finals.
In her 50m back she moved up nine places to qualify for the final in ninth place in a time of 34.94. She improved her time again in the final, achieving a best of 34.72 with a strong sprint swim.
Emily’s second final was again in backstroke, this time the 100m distance. In this event she moved up seven places, finishing in a time of 1:13.69 in her heat. She was just outside this time in the final but was one of only two 14-year-olds in the final in this combined 14/15 age group.
Megan swam in six events in the 16/17 age group – three on each day. Like Keira, Megan’s highest-placed event was her 200m fly which she finished in seventh overall.
She was also the fourth 16-year-old in the North District, achieving a new long course PB of 2:54.71 in this demanding swim. Megan’s other notable PB swims were her 50m breaststroke, where she moved up five places, and her 50m fly, where she moved up four places to finish in 21st overall.
Edward qualified for the 50m and 100m back and the 100m fly. His highlight was his improved long course time of 1:14.45 in the 100m fly, his main event. This also improved his consideration time for the national age groups, also being held at Aberdeen Sports Village this month.
Aiden swam in seven events during the championships with a spread of swims across all four strokes plus individual medley.
Aiden started the weekend well with an improved time of 29.74 in his 50m free. This was followed by his 200m breast where he swam close to his best to finish 12th overall. His 50m back was also just on his PB.
In addition to these successes, Tom, Jed, Edward and Emily achieved improved times in their national age groups qualifying and/or consideration times.
Tom also recently swam as part of Highland Swim Team in the 200m backstroke, his strongest event, at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Tom’s perfectly executed swim delivered splits of 31.27, 34.30, 36.55 and 34.16 to move him from 28th seed to 19th recording a new PB of 2:16.38. This was a tremendous achievement for Tom at an international level.