Thurso pair set new records in capital meet
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The three-day competition was split into heats for the open events in the morning, youth heats in the afternoon and finals for the open events in the evening.
Ellie’s time of 1 minute 14.98 seconds in the first session was just outside her entry time but sufficient to put her into the B final. Emma swam the 50m backstroke, finishing in 31.07, less than one tenth from her personal best, placing her as a reserve for the evening final.
Ellie put in a strong performance, with her fastest 100m breaststroke time in two years in the B final. Her time of 1:13.55, producing a new 16/17-year-old club record, was enough to secure third.
Emma led off the HST medley relay team with a fast 50m backstroke leg. Unfortunately, she missed the timing pad on finishing so her split time was not recorded.
The other HST team members – Ruth Gordon (Skye), Jody Anderson (Inverness) and Laura Harrison (Nairn) – brought the team home in 2:06.30, finishing second in their heat. The evening swims included the bizarre sight of a swimmer, Ryan Bennett of Preston, ending up in the wrong lane and being disqualified after his back to breast turn in the 100m intermediate medley, which meant he was swimming side by side with Kris Gilchrist.
In the same session, a three-way tie for silver in the men’s 50m breaststroke was another unusual occurrence.
Ellie was back with a bang on the Saturday morning, recording a personal best of 27.09 in the 50m freestyle to win her heat and put her into the B final.
Emma continued the Thurso success in the 200m backstroke with a swim of 2:24.17 which also put her into the evening’s B final. Ellie reached another B final in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 34.49. Emma’s swim of 4:42.57 in the 14 and under 400m freestyle was just outside her PB.
In the 50m freestyle B final, Ellie found herself up against former Thurso Club member Rona Plowman, now swimming for City of Aberdeen. In a fast and furious event, both swimmers put in strong performances. They both swam an identical time of 26.88, a best for Ellie, giving them joint fourth.
In the 200m backstroke B final Emma came in 7th in 2:23.98, beating her heat time. Another strong performance, this time in the 50m breaststroke B final, saw Ellie breaking the club 50m breaststroke record for the second time in two months in 33.72 to finish second.
The Highland relay team of Jody, Emma, Laura and Ruth swam 1:58.64 in the 4x50m freestyle relay, with Emma’s split recorded as 28.78.
Sunday morning saw Ellie making another B final, this time in the 50m butterfly with a PB of 29.10. Emma came third in her seeded 100m heat, producing the same time as Lauren Gilkes of Ren 96 who swam in a previous heat, both ending up as reserves.
At the start of the last session of the meet Emma found herself in a swim off against Lauren Gilkes to decide who would be second and third reserve. They were joined by Jennifer King of North Ayrshire, due to a curious situation of the meet organisers incorrectly placing Jennifer in the B final. To make amends, Jennifer was allowed to join Emma and Lauren. Emma swam well, producing a new club record time of 1:06.04. Despite this, none of three swimmers got to swim in the B final.
In the 50m butterfly B final Ellie found herself in the adjacent lane to Rona Plowman who came in as fastest qualifier. A very competitive race saw six of the eight swimmers being in a shout for first place, with Ellie just taking it in 28.79, only eight hundredths ahead of Rona in second. Ellie’s finishing time giving her another club record and a new PB.
Between Emma and Ellie, four club records were broken and they reached five B finals against strong opposition, showing the quality of the two Caithness swimmers.
