Thanks to Ian Wright, head performance coach of the City of Glasgow Swim Team, for contributing this piece.
City of Glasgow swimmers are celebrating after winning the prestigious Scottish National Junior Team title. The annual competition, held at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, saw the top ten ranked clubs in the country come together to race their swimmers aged 16/under over a series of events for overall team points.
With a pre-meet ranking of 6th, the City squad were not expecting to challenge for top honours, and with some inexperienced young swimmers in the team, the aim was simply to race tough and set some personal best times.
However, as the competition got underway it soon became apparent that four teams were pulling away from the other six. Some fantastic early swims raised the expectation level as City of Glasgow found themselves in fourth place, just a few points behind FIRST (Falkirk), City of Aberdeen and Warrender.
As events progressed the lead changed hand multiple times, although Glasgow were mainly lying fourth with the occasional elevation to second or third. At one point it looked like FIRST were going to be comfortable winners after they opened up a 20 point lead. However, they were soon pegged back and Warrender took over at the top, shortly followed by City of Aberdeen going in front after they took several first place swims.
When the commentator announced the positions with only six races to go, the gap covering the top four had narrowed again to just ten points with City of Aberdeen holding a very narrow lead over Warrender followed by FIRST and City of Glasgow.
A great swim of 27.32 by the home team’s Lauren Gilkes in the girls 50 freestyle then secured first place and maximum points, and with City of Aberdeen taking 10th in the same race the overall positions were immediately changed with dramatic effect. It became apparent that City of Glasgow were in with a chance of a surprise win if all went well in the remaining swims.
Further drama then followed in the girls medley relay with the Glasgow girls putting in a strong swim to finish a very close second behind Warrender. However, after the referees confirmed the result the scoreboard showed Glasgow in top spot and more maximum points with Warrender on zero after suffering a disqualification for an early takeover. With one race to go Glasgow now just needed a safe swim and a top half finish. The boys relay team duly delivered and all that remained was for the announcer to read out the final positions.
Fourth, Warrender, 263 points. Third, FIRST, 265. Second, City of Aberdeen, 268. And in first place, City of Glasgow on 275.5 points!
This was truly a fantastic team effort, with the young Glasgow squad racing their hearts out for each other and the club name. Every team member made a significant contribution, with many dropping their lifetime bests by huge margins. The swimmers should be very proud of this achievement and it will hopefully build their confidence nicely for the season ahead.
First place swims for City of Glasgow were:
Anna Fleming – 100 Butterfly – 1:01.86
Anna Fleming – 100 Freestyle – 57.43
Lauren Gilkes – 50 Freestyle – 27.32
Eilidh Smith – 50 Butterfly – 29.63
David Muir – 50 Breaststroke – 31.40
Girls 4 x 50 Medley Relay – 2:00.55 (Lauren Gilkes, Kitty Chan, Anna Fleming, Elidh Smith)
