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Highland swim team youngsters on form


By SPP Reporter

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Thurso’s Ellie Spencer in the 400m individual medley breaststroke leg.
Thurso’s Ellie Spencer in the 400m individual medley breaststroke leg.

The competition took place over five days in Sunderland, north-east England.

Ellie competed in the 16-year-old age group and Rona in the 17-to-18 age section.

On day one Ellie’s first event was the 400m individual medley – her first attempt at this event in a 50m pool.

Ellie swam into the final with a time of 5.17.43. In the final she dropped behind on her backstroke leg but caught up with the other swimmers after the breaststroke, improving on her heat time to come in fifth in 5.12.01 – a new club long-course record.

Day two saw Ellie in the 100m breaststroke. Her time of 1.17.11 took her into the final as fourth fastest. In the final she missed out on bronze by one 25th of a second with a time of 1.16.48.

Rona joined Ellie on day three with both competing in the 50m freestyle and 200m individual medley. Ellie just missed out on the 50m free final with a time of 28.74 placing her as first reserve. Rona’s time of 27.47, a club record, put her into the final as fastest 17-to-18-year-old. In the 200m IM Ellie was placed as a reserve for the final with a time of 2.33.24. Rona reached the final in her age group as third fastest in 2.25.95.

The 17-to-18-year-old 50m freestyle final was very tight with five swimmers going under 28 seconds. Rona took bronze in 27.27, a further improvement on the club record, a fifth of a second behind South Aberdeenshire’s Sara Hamilton and just behind second-placed Jessica Wilkie of Heart of Midlothian.

In the 200m IM final, Rona turned in fourth place after the 50m fly leg, a quarter of a second behind Corrie Scott. By the end of the backstroke leg Rona had pulled herself into third place, still within a second of Corrie. Rona retained her third place on the breaststroke leg. She finished fifth in 2.25.29 – a half-second improvement on her heat time.

Day four started with a confident, controlled swim by Ellie in the 200m breaststroke. She led her heat from the start, qualifying for the final fourth fastest in 2.48.60. Rona went below the minute to qualify as fastest in the 17-to-18-year-old age group in the 100m freestyle, winning her heat by a clear margin.

The 200m breaststroke final saw a determined swim from Ellie. At the last she was in fourth place but she battled hard and snatched silver in the club record time of 2.44.12 with Raquel Matos of East Lothian taking gold in 2.40.23.

The 17-to-18-year-old 100m free final saw another battling performance from Rona. At 50m there was very little separating the swimmers with six competitors turning in under 29 seconds. An exciting finish saw Rona come in third for her second bronze medal in a time of 59.21.

The final day of the competition saw both Ellie and Rona competing in the 100m fly. Ellie’s heat time was significantly short of her PB but still put her as second reserve for the final. Rona put herself into the final as fastest in the 17-to-18-year-old category, equalling the club record in the process.

Ellie’s next event was the 400m freestyle. Again she was significantly short of her personal best but achieved the second reserve position.

In the final for the 100m fly, Rona just lost to Commonwealth Games competitor Corrie Scott of South Lanarkshire but taking silver in a club record of 1.04.50.

Due to withdrawals Ellie made it into the 400m freestyle final where she knocked more than 10 seconds off her heat time to come in seventh.

This concluded a successful meet for Highland who won 11 medals, four of which were from the Thurso swimmers.


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