Record breaking trip to the capital for Fins swimmers

A long course event, consisting of 100m of the four individual strokes plus a 200m individual medley, it saw nine Fins swimmers competing in 30 individual swims plus a tenth swimmer who competed in two successful relays.

The individual swims achieved 26 long course PBs, an improvement rate of 87 per cent.

They also resulted in five more District titles, plus two individual, and one relay, silver medals, six other finalists and another two club long course records.

Fins also finished in sixth place in the Solripe Trophy from the 28 District clubs competing which is quite an achievement for a relatively small club.

They also finished as top Fife club from the seven clubs competing with Incas second and Carnegie third.

The Solripe Trophy was won by Warrender Baths who amassed more points than the next five clubs together, such is their dominance at club level.

In terms of performance Fins top swimmer was Erin Taylor who won two District Titles and set two new Fins club records, one she broke twice.

Erin broke her own 100m breaststroke club record in the heats by 2.26 seconds and again in the final by a further 0.66 seconds setting a new record time of 1 minute 13.80 seconds.

A 2.92 second improvement at this level is exceptional and when the rankings are updated later in the week it should see Erin ranked as top 17 years girls in Scotland and, depending on any meets that took place in the rest of the country, she may be ranked fifth in GB.

Erin also set a new club record at the 50m split in the breaststroke in a time of 34.96 seconds which improved her own previous record by 0.87 seconds.

She had a fairly comfortable win in the breaststroke by 2.54 seconds but it was quite different in her other District title, the 200m individual medley when, once again, she was up against Thanrada McGregor of Warrender Baths Club where, in the final transition from breaststroke to freestyle, Erin came out of the turn over a body length down but an exception freestyle length saw her just touch out Thanrada.

In term of District Titles top swimmer goes to Adam Selbie, 11/12 boys, who had an another exceptional weekend winning three District Titles in backstroke, butterfly and individual medley, fairly comfortable with winning margins of 2.81; 2.02 and 1.47 seconds respectively.

Adam also won two silver medals in the breaststroke and freestyle losing out to Reuben Lees, Warrender Baths, by 1.72 seconds in the breaststroke and Fraser Muir, Carnegie, by 0.72 seconds in the freestyle.

The other finalists were: Mark Scott, 16 boys, fifth – breaststroke and first reserve for the butterfly; Steven Pate, 15 boys, fifth – breaststroke; Irys Blair, 11/12 girls, seventh in both the butterfly and individual medley and Ethan Pate, 11/12 boys, seventh – butterfly and first reserve for freestyle.

This is quite an achievement for Ethan who is only 11.

The other swimmers who did well but didn’t quite make a final were Jennifer Gordon (16), Heidi Mellon (15), and Grace Wilson (15).

The 11/12 years had two successful mixed relay swims with the team of Irys, Adam, Ethan, and Ayva Mellon winning a silver medal in the 4x50m freestyle, finishing just 1.42 seconds behind Warrender Baths.

The same team also finished in fifth place in the 4x50m medley relay.