Medley effort earns gold medal for Rona
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WICK High School pupil Rona Plowman returned from the annual Brodies Scottish Schools Championships with a gold and a bronze medal for her two swims.
The various areas of Scotland held their school heats at the end of 2011 and of the 15 pupils from Wick High School who competed in the Highland heats Rona was the only pupil to qualify through to the finals for the two swims she entered.
The final was held in the 50 metre (long-course) swimming pool at East Kilbride on January 28.
Rona first swam the 100m freestyle in a fast and exciting race finishing in third place in a new personal best time of 59.61 seconds behind gold medallist Jessica Wilkie, from Telford High, and silver medallist Kirsten McKinlay, from Boclair Academy.
Rona was back up on the starting blocks within 15 minutes for the 200 individual medley, which is a race swimming all four strokes.
Rona had a good start in the butterfly, turning in second place behind Lauren Averell, of Hermitage Academy, then onto the backstroke where she was first to touch ahead of Sara Hamilton, of Mackie Academy. In the breaststroke leg Rona increased her lead and turned into the final freestyle a length ahead of Jessica Wilkie. In what was an exciting finish Rona touched first in 2.25.90, Jessica second in 2.26.78 and Sara Hamilton third in 2.27.24.
This will be Rona’s last time representing Wick High School in swimming, having won gold, silver and bronze medals in previous Brodies Scottish Schools Championships, as she leaves the school in the summer.
She also put Wick High School on the map when she twice competed in the UK School Games where she won a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle.
