Step Rock's championships go just swimmingly

The championships were held in honour of the late May Macgregor, a life member and long time supporter of the club.

First to swim were the youngest competitors, many stepping on to the blocks for the first time in the U9s beginners cups, for one length freestyle.

The eight finallists were Alex Thom, Louis Garrido, Callum Steven, Sasha Booth, Iona Hislop, Yining Ye, Jemima Rees and Orla Stuart – with Thom and Hislop touching first to take the trophies in the boys’ and girls’ events.

In the U10 boys, Murray Dobie and Eddie Niven were amongst the competitors battling it out.

With five golds, Dobie took the overall championship.

Hislop, Rees and Ye all swam up in the U10s events, Hislop taking the overall title, with strong racing from Jessica Duff, 2 silvers, and Katy Sinclair, 1 silver.

Spoils were shared in the U12 girls events, with Freya Edie, Eva Stuart, Olivia Kelly and Elodie Dempster competing in all five finals.

Strong in butterfly, Edie’s two golds and three silvers saw her pip Stuart’s two golds and Kelly’s oneto the championship.

In the U12 boys, Andrew Lu took a clean sweep of golds on his way to the title, Eden Hislop and Toby Paterson his closest rivals.

In the U14 boys events, strong racing from Oscar Geary, with four new PBs, saw him take the title.

Ellie Wilson, who in 2020 secured five U12 club championship records, very nearly repeated that feat in the U14 girls event, breaking four records on her way to the championship.

Freya Hedley, Isla Hedley and Anna Suttie competed in the ladies open events, and it was the younger of the two Hedley sisters, Freya, who prevailed overall, with golds in 100m breaststroke and backstroke. The gents open saw Sam Coull storm to gold, and a new record, in the 100m breaststroke.

Russell Laker won the 100m freestyle. Fraser Stewart led from start to finish of the 100m butterfly, taking gold with another record, but arguably his best performance was in the 200m individual medley, where he demolished one of the oldest club records: Matthew Charnley’s from 2007.

The U16 freestyle was won by Freya Hedley and Stewart in a new record of 59.03s. The gents handicap was won by Stewart and the ladies handicap went to Isla Hedley.