Thurso youngsters aid return to top flight
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
TWO youngsters from Thurso Amateur Swimming Club – Emma Budge and Ellie Spencer – represented Scotland North in the Inter-Counties League Championship at the Ponds Forge Swimming Pool in Sheffield.
It consisted of two competitions taking place simultaneously at the 50m pool, which was split in two. The competitors were arranged into three age groups – 12 to 13, 14 to 15 and 16 to 17.
The individual events were over 100m, with two heats for each age group. Each age section also competed in a 4 x 50m medley relay.
The competition finished with a 6 x 50m freestyle relay, with a boy and girl from each age group. The previous year, Scotland North had been relegated to the second division after coming bottom of division one.
Ellie was the first North District swimmer to race, when she completed the 100m free in 58.91, coming sixth. In the medley relay first heat, Emma led off with backstroke putting the team into second with a time of 31.86, a Thurso club record for the 12-to-13 age group.
She was followed by Skye swimmer Ruth Gordon with a split time of 36.23 for the breaststroke leg, putting the team into the lead.
Sophie Herbert (fly 33.38) and Joanna Anderson (free 27.94) maintained the lead, winning the first heat in 2.09.41, which put Scotland North in third place overall after the second heat. Sophie swims for Buckie and Joanna for City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST).
Emma swam well in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1.08.28, finishing sixth with a new club record for the 12-to-13 age group. North District worked its way up the table from fifth to second before slipping.
Ellie followed Caitlin Rees (back 32.30), Hayley Montieth (breast 32.60) and Clair Moir (fly 28.99) to help the team win the first heat in the 16-to-17 age group. Caitlin and Hayley swim for COAST and Clair swims for South Aberdeenshire.
Ellie’s freestyle leg of 26.97 was particularly fast, helping the team to a North District record time of 2.00.86. This proved to be the winning time overall.
The competition ended with the cannon relay, which saw both Thurso swimmers take part, and resulted in the Scotland North team finishing in 11th place.
The swimmers were Calum Burkinshaw (Deveron) 25.25, Ellie 27.39, Zoe Grant (COAST) 27.73, Liam Spooner (Alford) 29.09, Emma 29.08, and Connor McGhee (Inverness) 23.91.
Scotland North managed to hang on to fourth place in the league, gaining promotion back to division one.
