Portobello Amateur Swimming Club

It was a great start to the season after the summer break. 

In the 11 & under girls, Jade Muirhead had a fantastic weekend, qualifying for 7 finals in total. Bringing home her first set of swimming medals, Jade won a gold and two silvers.  Emma Hogarth also had a great day by qualifying for 4 finals and winning 2 golds and a bronze - not bad for a 10 year old!

In the 12/13 year old girls, both Laura and Rosanna each won a gold and a silver medal, Michelle qualified for 3 finals and won a silver and a bronze.  Anna qualified for 2 finals, whilst Nieve qualifed for 100m fly final.

In the 14 & over girls, Fi qualified for 2 finals and won a bronze medal for 100m free.  

There were also number of PBs, including Kitty, Gigi and Stuart, so well done to all our swimmers.

The full set of results can be on the Swim Scotland website : http://www.swimscotland.org.uk/meets10/Fins2010/index.htm

Despite the long, torturous journey courtesy of an accident on the M8, we had lots of Portobello club swimmers representing their Schools at this event in Glasgow. The morning session was the most successful with the majority of our swimmers qualifying for the finals.  The S1 Porty High girls came 5th in the medley relay.  In the S2 girls freestyle relay,  the Mary Erskine team were 6th overall and Porty High were 9th.  The S2 Portobello boys were 5th in freestyle, S3/4 Heriots boys took 6th place in the medley and the S3/4 Portobello girls were 9th and in the open freestyle event the Heriot’s boys were 3rd and the girls were 4th.

It was mixed success in the afternoon, the S2 Porty boys reached the finals of the medley relay and were 4th overall.  The Heriot’s S3/4 boys were 9th in the freestyle, whilst in the open medley race, the Heriots boys were 4th and the girls were 5th.

Many thanks to Lindsay for assisting on poolside all day, before having to dash back Edinburgh to start work at 5.30pm!

A special ‘ThankYou’ to the PHS parents who organised and provided transport for the kids on the day.

http://www.swimscotland.org.uk/meets10/ScottishSchoolsRelays2010/index.htm

This year’s final round of the Lothian Intermmediate Leagues was as exciting as always.  In the morning there were some excellent individual performances and really exciting close finishes .  For the 8/9 year old girls Morgan was 1st in 50m back and 4th in 50m free, Gigi and Jenna got good PBs for 25m fly and 50m breast respectively. In the 8/9 year od boys, Robin had excellent morning with PBs for both 50m free and 50m back. For the 10/11 years boys, Sam also had a great day with a 5 sec PB for the 100m IM.  The 10/11 year old girls B team won the silver medal in the overall positions, Emma and Ellie took 1st places in the 100 IM and 50m breast strokes and Rosanna was 2nd in the 50m back.  Unfortunately the girls A team were victims of their own success by swimming too fast in the earlier rounds! 

It was the turn of the older swimmers in the afternoon, and again there were lots of PBs and exciting races.  With a strong performance from the 12/13 year old girls, Michelle took 1st place in the 100m back,  Laura was 2nd and 3rd in 200m IM and 100 fly, Iona was 2nd in 100m breast and Nieve was 4th in the 200m free.  This meant overall, the girls secured 3rd place and took the bronze medal.  But it was the 14 & over boys who stole the afternoon - Gavin was 1st in the 200m Free, Scott was also 1st in 200m IM, John took 1st and 2nd places for 100m fly and 100m breast and Daniel was 1st in 100m back!  Finally, with the Team again taking 1st place in the relay race, this secured their place at the top of the table taking the gold medal. 

Unfortunately we did not have enough swimmers to field a full team for either the 14 & over girls or 12/13 boys, but there were still some really good individual performances.  With an excellent swim, Douglas was 3rd in the 200m free but Rory was too fast for the 200m IM.  For the girls, Robyn took 2nd place in the 100m fly and Louise was 2nd in the 100m breast.

Many thanks to James for helping on poolside all day and to Gail and Maureen for their help in the morning and afternoon respectively.

All the results can be found on Swim Scotland.

http://www.swimscotland.org.uk/meets10/LothianLeaguesRnd3-2010/index.htm

Another great weekend in Sunderland for this 2nd Long Course meet. It was a really good team building experience with a great team spirit and all of the swimmers showed great support towards each other, not to mention the numerous PBs that were achieved! There were some fantastic swims from all our swimmers, especially bearing mind the limited amount of long course training we have had following the closure of RCP.

Leading the way was Rory Mackay who took gold in 200m Fly, bronze in the 200m Back, 4th for 100m Back & 100m Fly and 5th in 50m Back & 50m Fly, which placed him 7th overall in the 14 year old boys. Ciaran also had a great weekend with silver for 50m Free, 4th for 50m Back & 100m Fly and 5th for 100m Free, which meant he was 6th overall in the 13 year old boys age group. Both John and Scott achieved too many PBs to mention in their events and Gavin put in a great effort, finishing in the top 10 in both the 200m Back and the 400m IM, despite the fact he hasn’t had a lot of training in the past few weeks.

The girls also had a successful weekend, Laura achieved numerous PBs, coming 4th in 50m Back, Nieve was 5th in 50m Back for the 12 year old girls but her best swim had to be a 3 sec PB in 50m Fly! Also achieving numerous PBs, Michelle came 5th in the 50m Breast and secured her bronze time for 200m Back, whilst Emma came 6th for 50m Breast and Anna also achieved 6th place for 100m Breast.

The full set of results can be found on the City of Sunderland ASC website http://www.cityofsunderlandasc.co.uk/GALAS/2010_5_2nd_SUNE_open/webpages/index.htm

A big thanks to John, Lindsay, Jackie and Alison for looking after the swimmers over the course of the weekend and for all their support and encouragement during the gala.  The swimmers have to be commended for their good behaviour and should be very proud of their performance.

The first round of this year’s Lothian Leagues saw 10 teams competing for Porty, though a couple of the teams were missing a swimmer so had to miss the relays. The feature of the morning session was our 10/11 girls breaking the timebands. 5 times we went faster than expected so several excellent PBs were recorded. Of all the teams in the morning session, the 10/11 girls B team was the one who finished day one near the top of their league (once the results had been sorted out).

Tha afternoon session belonged to the 14+ boys team, who finished the day on top of their league after some very exciting races. Well done to Rory G for competing on his own as we failed to field a team in the 12/13 boys and also to the 12/13 girls who put in a good team effort.

Full results here -> http://www.swimscotland.org.uk/meets10/Lothian%20Leagues%20Round%202%202010/index.htm

Finals weekend at Glenrothes saw more than a dozen Porty swimmers competing in individual finals sessions of the 100m events as well as 7 relay teams taking part. Our top performer was Ciaran who made the final of all three of his events and came home with a silver and a bronze medal from the free and the fly. Ellie also won an individual medal, taking the silver in the back. Our other finalist was Rory M who had a sensational swim in his heat to beat Craig Benson (Scottish Squad member) and take his place in the final.

Our relay teams swam really well and although we didn’t get any medals, we had four 4th places - the 10/11 girls taking 4th place in both of their events, with the 12 yrs girls and the 13/14 boys both finishing 4th in the freestyle.

We also had some great individual performances in the relays, with Anna, Ciara, JJ and Rory M all puting in great times in the free and  Iona + Louise swimming great breaststroke legs.

Congratulations to our 11 swimmers who have qualified for finals day at Scottish Schools Champs at the end of Jan (Sat 30th @ Tollcross). Ellie (50m back) and Katie (100m breast) have both qualified in the top half dozen times in their event and JJ, Rory M and Gavin have all qualified for two finals each.

Our other finalists are Rory W (200 IM), Zoe and Emma (50m breast), Rory G (100m fly), John (100m back) and Daniel (reserve in 100m free). Raquel, Chris and Niall have also qualified so we will have a good presence at the Champs in Jan.

This year we reverted to the all inclusive format, so the event was open to all swimmers. That meant we had swimmers from 7 (Erin) to 40+ and included numerous water polo players and a game mum (well done Adele, it was very brave to compete against your four kids).

11 heats produced some excellent swims, none more so than Morgan who won her heat by a mile making a mockery of her initial handicap. There were several families who produced great results, especially the Urquharts, Gallachers and McKays who all had two swimmers in the semi finals. Some of the best PBs in the heats were from Bethany, Erin B, Iona, Nicole, Ciara, Michelle, Fraser M, Ryan and Rory M.

We then had five semi-finals with only the winner progressing to the final. This resulted in even closer races as the handicaps were revised after the first round. Once again Morgan won her race, as did Iona, Laura, Rory G and Nielson (who won a very quick race in 26.5 secs).

The final was a great spectacle, with little Morgan (only 8) competing against two 12 year olds, a 13 yr old and a 30 something giant of water polo. The bronze medal went to Laura with another excellent PB, Neilson took the silver (despite going under 26.5 in the final) and the champion this year is Rory G who swam out of his skin going under 30 secs for the first time.

Many thanks to the parents who came to support an add to the atmosphere and to the time keepers who helped the evening run so well. Finally, a huge thanks to Jack who kept everyone right and to Jeanette who kept the results in order and made sure we allocated the appropriate new handicaps.

The second round of the event saw us win our first medal of this season’s championships. Ellie swam a fantastic 9 sec PB to take the silver in the 200m back and she was closing the gap on the eventual winner all the way through the final 50m. JJ had another excellent day, making the qualifying final of the 100m fly and then finishing 3rd with a great PB to qualify for the finals weekend - that’s now five Portobello boys in the finals session in the 14/15 yrs 100m fly.

Nieve also had a great weekend, securing her 400m free bronze squad time for next year to become our first swimmer to obtain a complete set for 2010/11. The older boys producd some strong 400m free swims too, with John, Rory M and Niall all swimming excellent PBs. Other good PBs came from Rory W in the 200m breast and Ciara in the 200m back.

More silverware for Portobello as the swimmers retained the Haddington President’s Trophy with an excellent team performance. We won by a bigger margin than last year using more swimmers so congratulations go to the whole team. Top points scorers were Stuart and Kate and biggest PBs went to Jade, Megan, Jamie, Rosanna and Stuart.

Its a dificult meet to follow as a spectator as the time bands can result in the ‘winner’ of a heat scoring no points whilst the 2nd or 3rd placed swimmer picks up maximum points. That said, we led right from start and when the points were announced after the fly we were the top team. That lead grew as each stroke was completed and by the end we won comfortably.

Many thanks to the parents who came to cheer on the team and special thanks go to those swimmers who only had one swim but who competed really well and contributed valuable points to the team score.