A welcome return for Step Rock swimmers

The St Andrews club were one of a number from across the country taking part at Scottish Swimming’s ‘festival of swimming’, held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

The festival was organised as part of three concurrent long course meets with other events being staged in Aberdeen and Tollcross.

First up on the blocks were 14-year-olds Rowan Geary and Fraser Stewart.

Dusting off the racing cobwebs in their first event, the 200m individual medley, in which both boys raced to new PBs, they both then took on the 400m freestyle, with strong and tactically very different swims.

Fraser comfortably won his heat and Rowan demonstrated excellent pacing.

In the afternoon, Sam Coull and Finch Geary, both 12-years-old, also started their weekends with PBs in the 200m IM, before a two-second PB from Sam gained him third place overall in the 100m breaststroke.

Finch’s 21-second PB also earned him third place in the 400m freestyle.

The next two days saw the swimmers grow in confidence, and they continued to deliver high quality swims, with 21 out of a total of 24 swims being lifetime bests.

A Step Rock spokesman said: “The coaches were particularly impressed with the boys’ mature attitude to the improvement process, being able to communicate their race plans clearly, and subsequently evaluate good and less well-executed aspects of their performances.

"This is a huge step towards progressing their swimming journey, and coupled with the hard work they’re doing in training back at their home pool in St Andrews, it bodes well for a good season ahead of them once more galas are up and running later on in the year.”