Courtesy: Scottish Swimming
University of Stirling clinched the Top Club Title on a thrilling final night of action from the Scottish National Short Course Open Swimming Championships in Edinburgh with more Scottish Records broken and some fantastic exhibition relays to bring the curtain down on the event.
Keanna MacInnes (University of Stirling) opted for a single individual event this meet, but certainly made a huge impact on the final day, breaking her own Scottish Record for 200m butterfly with a time of 2:05.26. Edinburgh University’s Ciara Schlosshan pushed her hard the entire race and was not at all far behind, winning silver in 2:05.57, while Seren Tallantyre of Morpeth won bronze in 2:12.62.
Matthew Ward (Bath Performance Centre) secured his clean sweep of backstroke titles, winning gold over 100m on the final day and breaking his own Scottish Record with a time of 51.08. Over the weekend, he broke Scottish Records over all the backstroke distances while also picking up titles for 200m freestyle and 200m IM.
University of Stirling’s Dean Fearn won silver over 100m backstroke in 51.82, while Edinburgh University’s Scott Gibson took the bronze in 53.38.
Edinburgh University’s Anna Morgan secured her hat-trick of breaststroke titles with victory in the 100m, adding to the golds already won over the 50m and 200m distances. As has been the way over the weekend, Anna swam a controlled race, touching home in 1:06.28, ahead of team-mate Charlotte Hardy, who came home for the silver medal in 1:07.53. Emily McGhee (Dundee City Aquatics) won bronze in 1:09.26.
Anna said of her performances, “I think out of the three distances, my eyes are mostly on the 100m. The 200m for me has kind of taken a little bit of a backseat this season, but I still swim it, and I think since the 50 became an Olympic event, it’s become more exciting for me so I’ll likely stick to the 50m and the 100m just because I enjoy them more.”
With her Edinburgh team-mates sharing the podium regularly, Anna spoke about the training, she said,
“I think Mat’s (Mat Trodden, Head Coach), has got a good eye technically for breaststroke, and, you know, no breaststroke is the same. We’ve got four female breaststrokers at least in our squad, and obviously, there’s the guys as well. None of us swim the stroke the same, and I think the important thing that Mat does for us, is every session is tailored to our specific requirements. So where I might do a mix of both kick and pull, one of us might do more pull-specific stuff because that’s a strong point for them. It is very much individualised, even though the stroke itself is the same. So I probably put the success down to that.”
Looking ahead to the long course season, Anna said, “I am looking forward to seeing how I get on at long course. I’ve done a lot of work on my stroke, not just my skills, but my stroke speed, so that will be all the more important in long course. I’ve been enjoying the short course season so far, and I’ve made some good improvements, so I’m really excited to see how I can carry that through into Trials.”
University of Stirling’s George Smith won his third individual title of the meet with victory in the 200m breaststroke, adding to the golds already presented to him for 400m IM and 100m breaststroke earlier in the meet.
George led home a University of Stirling 1-2-3, touching home in 2:05.95 ahead of Rory Dickson in 2:08.70 and Rafe Dobson in 2:08.93. A great meet for George, but one that, come the long course season, could leave him with some decisions to make. He said,
“I’m excited for next year, the Trials and hopefully the Games, it should be good. However, the schedule for the Commonwealth Games is difficult for me. The 400 IM and 200 breast are on the same day. So, I’m going to have to probably decide which one I take on. We’ll have to see what happens at Trials, which one is going better, but if I can, I’d love to do both.”
There was a hotly anticipated 100m butterfly final with all athletes showing great race form over the weekend. Add to that the fact that Evan Jones had broken the Scottish Record on Saturday night down in Sheffield, the race to the podium was a fierce one.
Edinburgh University’s Brodie Gordon-Gibson flew from the blocks and started strongly over the first 50m, but it was the University of Stirling’s Jamie Robertson who finished fastest, taking the touch in 51.32 ahead of Brodie, who won silver in 51.90. Dean Fearn (University of Stirling) won the bronze medal in 52.04.
Jamie said, “It was a good race. I mean, going into it, I knew it’d be very competitive, and I know short course isn’t my strongest pool or distance. So yes, I was just trying to be aggressive on the underwaters and commit to it as much as I could. And happily for me it just turned out well!
“There’s obviously a lot of competition at the minute between, well, the podium there, but also Evan Jones, who broke the Scottish record last night (Swim England Winter Championships). That level of competition makes it difficult, but I guess it pushes you on as well. A couple of years ago, I think I had the second-fastest time on a 52 high. So the fact that now there are three of us under or on the 52 mark and Evan under 51, it’s just great. And as we push each other, we just raise the bar, and that can only be a good thing.”
Looking ahead to next year, Jamie continued, “Next year is a home games, and that’s what everyone wants to aim for and achieve. So, yes, I’m really excited, but I just try and keep my feet grounded and not focus too much on anyone else.”
In other events, Phoebe Arbuckle (Warrender Baths Club) secured her hat-trick of freestyle titles, adding the 1500m to the 800m and 400m events already won. University of Stirling’s Lucy Hope won her first individual title of the meet, with a well-executed 200m freestyle, while Stefan Krawiec added the 50m freestyle title to his 100m freestyle gold.
Caitlin Ebbage (University of Stirling) won another backstroke title, this time over 50m, and Katie Goodburn (Edinburgh University) picked up her first individual title of the meet for 100m IM. David Annis (University of Stirling) took the win in the 400m freestyle final.
In the exhibition relay events, the quartet of Matthew Ward, Rafe Dobson, Brogan Hyde and Jamie Robertson broke the Scottish Record for 4x50m medley relay (1:36.31) while Harry Cook, Lochlan Small, James Kilpatrick and Alex Holmes broke the Scottish Junior Record for the event with a time of 1:42.48.
There was further success for junior teams in the 4x50m freestyle relays, with Evi Mackie, Lili Mundell, Maddie Markell and Zara Krawiec breaking the Scottish Junior Record in 1:44.74, while Nikolai Sisnett, Alfie Price, Alex Holmes and Lochlan Small broke the Scottish Junior Record for the men’s event.
University of Stirling scooped the Top Club accolade with 1666.50 points, ahead of Edinburgh University who were worthy runner-up on 1234 points. University of Aberdeen Performance finished third overall on 436 points. Full points will be uploaded onto the website in due course.
The Scottish National Short Course Open Swimming Championships run from 2-14 December and are being hosted by Edinburgh Leisure at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh and supported by The City of Edinburgh Council.
The event programme can be found here.
Results will be uploaded to Swim Scotland.
