Portobello Amateur Swimming Club

Our annual 1500m event was held on Saturday with over 30 swimmers competing for the Ned Barnie trophy. It is run as a handicapped event, so each swimmer is trying to beat their estimated time and the winner is the person who does so by the biggest margin.

In terms of actual times swum, the three fastest boys were Gavin, Andrew and James whilst the three quickest girls were Raquel, Kate and Fi. However, the prizes are for beating the handicapper’s estimates and the winner was Rosanna with Jade and Zoe tied in equal second. There were several other excellent swims, including Nieve, Laura (last year’s winner), JJ, Kathryn, Emma C and Emma H who broke the 30 min mark aged only 9. Our newest member Morgan was the youngest finisher and three of our other youngsters ( Anna, Stuart and Roy) all completed an 800m swim.

Another exciting, noisy night of swimming in the Novice League (Coverdale Cup). It was our turn to host the races and the gallery was very busy with enthusiastic parents and friends. The kids were great, encouraging their team mates and trying to remember which stroke they were about to swim. We had quite a lot of swimmers who went too fast for the time band so it looks like all that training is working well.

Caitlyn, Isobel, Rosa, Kenzie, Ailsa, Sophie, Jenna, Joanne, Anna, Jack and Lewis all finished in the top half of their events and scored lots of points. Bethany, Megan, Mhairi, Lucy, Laura, Lauren, Monica, Abbie, Roy, Ben all swam so fast that they didn’t score points but they got excellent PBs. The relay teams did really well, with all three freestyle teams scoring good points.

Many thanks to all of our helpers who worked hard to make sure the evening ran smoothly and also to the pool staff who arranged everything that we needed.

The position is the league after two rounds is very close so there should be more exciting racing at Musselbugh in Jan;

Cummulative totals

 Tranent            386.5

Portobello            379.5

Haddington            369.5

Musselburgh            280.5

A big team attended this meet, despite numerous injury related withdrawls. We recorded a huge number of PBs and a dozen swimmers competed in finals of various events. Raquel made a total of 9 finals, won 4, took 4 second places and a 4th meaning that she was awarded the Best Girl trophy in her age group. JJ and Niall both had excellent weekends and they both made 8 finals with Niall collecting two medals of each colour and JJ winning a silver and three bronzes. Will also did well, collecting 2 silvers and 4 bronzes. Our final medal went to Gavin, who won a bronze in a very tough age group.

James, Katie, Emma C and Rory M all made finals in different events and Anna C, Chris and Kate each had one top 6 finish.  Also, several swimmers secured bronze squad times for next year’s qualifications. Nieve, Emma C, Katie and JJ all reached the qulaifying times in two different events and Rory M got his 200m back time.

Thanks go to the various officials and coaches who represented the club, especially Lindsay who was there all weekend.

We had almost 40 swimmers competing in this year’s schools championships and several others who could have been competing were either injured or swam in other areas. From that excellent entry we won a total of 26 individual medals and 20 medals in the relays (mostly for Portobello High who won medals in 4 different events).

Gavin and Raquel led the way, each winning both of their events. Rory W and James both won a gold and a bronze and Zoe, Ellie and Katie all went home with a gold medal. JJ and Rory M picked up two silvers, Jenny and John both won a silver and a bronze and Nicole, Chris, Sam and Rory G all won a silver. Ryan, Kate, Nieve and Robyn all collected a bronze medal. Finally, Emma C and Will both competed in the East Lothian Schools event and Emma in particular had a very good day.

Well done to everyone who competed and we now wait to discover which swimmers have qualified for the Scottish finals in Glasgow in Jan. To be eligible, you must finish in the top 3 in your area (Edinburgh for most of us) and then be in the top 20 from all entries across Scotland.

Another great afternoon at Peebles, though this time we returned without a trophy but with heaps of medals. Unfortunately we were missing a boy and then poor Sam was very unwell and had to go home so we were two down. Special thanks go to Liall who turned up to help the team by swimming in the 10 yrs age group despite being only 9 and then he didn’t get his gold in the team relay as we were mistakenly recorded as having an incomplete team.
  We did win lots of individual medals, with the girls leading the way. Emma C and Ellie each won two golds, Emma H won a gold and a silver, Anna C won two silvers, Ciara won a silver and a bronze, Lewis won a silver with Eilidh, Ben and Ryan all winning a bronze each.
  The relays were difficult due to the missing swimmers but the 9 and under team (Eilidh, Emma H, Ben and Lewis) won gold and bronze in their events and the 10 yrs team mysteriously were awarded bronze in the medley. Sadly, due to an error on the start sheet our team relay squad (Emma H, Ben, Ellie, Liall, Emma C + Ryan) missed out on the medals despite being the fastest team.
  Thanks go to our team of coaches and supporters who squashed into a very small space and cheered every swimmer and relay team.

We had about a dozen swimmers competing on the first weekend of the district age group championships. Ciaran and Gavin both made the final of their 200m events, Ciaran finishing 4th in the back and Gavin was 5th in the fly.
  JJ finished 3rd in the qualifying final of the 100m breast and will now compete in that event on finals weekend. Ciara also qualified for the finals weekend by finishing 4th in the 100m breast - in fact, she had an excellent weekend taking more than 5 secs off her PB in three different events. John also had some excellent swims, making the qualifying final of the 100m free and knocking 5 secs off his 400m IM best time.
Other notable PBs were Ellie + Nicole (200m breast), Zoe (100m breast), Ciaran (200m fly), Rory M + Nieve (200m back) and Zoe + Rosanna (100m free).
Finally, congratulations to Nieve and Chris for being our first girl and boy to secure Bronze squad times for this season, both made their 200m back time with Chris top 12 year old in the event and Rory M was less than a second away from his target.

 Congratulations to our five swimmers who have been selected for the new Scottish Triathlon Youth/Junior squad. The newest recruit is Scott who joins Will, Andrew, Erin and Kate on the newly announced squad for 2009/10.
  Will has also been selected for the British Squad, a huge honour which is thoroughly deserved after two highly successful years competing on the British circuit.

Good luck to all of them for the forthcoming season.