Portobello Amateur Swimming Club

An excellent weekend which saw two more Porty District Champions being crowned and the Club finishing 4th in the overall championship (Solripe Trophy) which is the highest we have ever achieved and also placed us at the 2nd top club in the Lothians.
  Sat started in spectacular fashion with Chris and Benjamin taking gold and silver in the 100m back. Raquel just missed a medal in the 100m free final and our 10/11 boys team won a bronze in the medley relay (including Sam Cooke in his first ever gala where both he and Aaron overcame lots of nerves and both swam really well). The 15/16 boys just missed a medal and the 10/11 girls finished a creditable 5th.
  The afternoon session saw Raquel winning another district medal, this time a silver in the 100m back. Benji (100m breast) and Niall (100m fly) also made their finals and the day concluded with the 10/11 boys and the 15/16 boys all winning bronze medals in the freestyle relay.
  Sunday morning produced another four individual finalists with Raquel winning an excellent 100m breast final (that makes her District Champion in both 100m + 200m breaststroke), and Louise taking fifth place in the same event with a good PB. Chris took silver in the 100m fly and our fourth finalist was James who qualified for the 100m free final with a breathtaking 55.47 sec swim in the heats - that was a 15 yrs silver squad time based on last year’s figures.  The morning finished with the medlay relays where our excellent 13/14 girls team finished 4th in a very high calibre race.

  Sun afternoon saw Raquel and Chris both making their finals, Raquel took silver in a new PB in the 100m fly and Chris just missed a medal in the 100m free. Its worth noting the heats of the 12/13 boys fly where JJ swam a great race to record a huge PB and was a reserve for the final. Our last event of the weekend was the 13/14 boys freestyle relay, a team missing a couple of swimmers and whom we even considered withdrawing. The boys (John, Gavin, Rory M and JJ) swam out of their skins to record a 1:58.07 and take the bronze medal.
  Well done to everyone who swam across the 4 months of the Championships and thanks to all the coaches, officials and parents for making that the Club was well represented.

Our next bag pack will take place on Saturday, 28 March at Sainsbury’s at Meadowbank - everyone needed to make this a success.  Please contact Janette Bell (Gillian’s mum) to book your slot!  If you don’t know Janette ask your Coach.

This event gives swimmers a final opportunity to obtain long course times as qualifying times for this year’s Scottish National Age Group champs. A good number of our swimmers participated and produced numerous improvements;
Ian in the 50m breast, Nieve and Rory G in the 100m back, Abby and Kate in the 100m breast, JJ, Ciaran and Rory G in the 100m fly, Abby, Nieve and Ciaran in the 100m free, Benji in the 200m IM, Ciaran, Rory M, Kate, Fi and Louise all in the 400m free, Will in the 50m free, Kate, Robyn, Ciaran and Cammy in the 200m back, Abby, JJ and Rory W in the 200m breast and finally Michelle, Benji, JJ, Ian and Ciaran all in the 200m free.

We had a limited number of swimmers competing in this year’s gala but they did very well, reaching seven finals between them. JJ had an excellent meet, recording very good PBs in all of his events and making 2 finals. Raquel also made 2 finals with Gillian, Katie and Niall making one each. Chris also set another couple of PBs and club captain Daniel knocked a further half sec off his 50m free time.