Dumfries swimmers hold their own against the best in the sport at London's Aquatics Centre
Amber Rigg, Amber Hinton and Finlay Nelson competed against top names in the Aquatics GB British Swimming Championships in London .
Dumfries ASC swimmers Amber Rigg (17) and Amber Hinton (15) competed in the Aquatics GB British Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre last month.
The pair were joined by fellow Dumfries and Galloway swimmer, Finlay Nelson (18), who is a Dumfries 2nd club swimmer and races for the University of Stirling.
This competition is also the qualification event for the World Championships in Singapore as well as a host of international teams across age-groups including the European Juniors so it attracted all the top names in British swimming, including Duncan Scott, Freya Anderson, Matt Richards, Amelie Blocksidge and many more.
To make the tough qualification times for these championships was a brilliant achievement for the swimmers and the experience they will have gained swimming in an environment such as the Olympic pool will be invaluable moving forward for the remainder of the season and indeed for the seasons ahead.
This was Finlay and Amber Hinton's first time qualifying for these Championships. Amber R qualified for five events and started day one with a 50m breaststroke where she finished 67th in the rankings.
In day two, Amber raced the 100m backstroke and after a super heat swim made the junior final where she finished in sixth position with a time of 1.04.05.
The 50m backstroke was Amber's third event where she finished in 48th place with a time just over the 30 second mark. The 200m backstroke was her penultimate swim where she swam a solid heat to earn herself a super reserve spot for the junior final.
Amber's final swim was in the 200IM where again another good swim in the heats earned her second reserve spot for the junior final that evening, highlighting her consistency in competing against the best senior and junior swimmers in Britain.
Amber H qualified for five events, but due to a clash in the schedule, chose to swim four. She kicked off her swims on day one with a 200m free where she swam a new pb (2.06.89), moved up 16 places in the rankings to 64th and finished as second 15-year-old girl in the event (age at end of year).
Day two was the 1500m free where she further lowered her pb by more than two seconds (set the week before in Aberdeen 17.31.28) in a brilliant race to finish inside the top 30 in 29th place, with only four of the other swimmers in the event swimming faster than her in the last 50m. In the 400m free she again moved up the rankings with a very solid swim.
On the final day of racing, Amber swam the 800m free which was another good race where she finished just outside her pb and moved up 12 places in the rankings to 41st, demonstrating her ability to keep up with the best in the country.
Finlay qualified for the 50m fly event and swam a good race in a time of 25.85 seconds and finished in 85th position, showing his continued progression while studying in Stirling.
The club is very proud of the three swimmers for their achievements competing against the best swimmers in the country and the girls would like to thank coach Anthony Ryan for all the support he gave them in London and over what had been a very busy two weeks of racing.
East Kilbride meet
Fifteen club swimmers travelled up to the Dollan Aqua Centre in East Kilbride to compete in the long course age group meet last month.
The group had great fun showcasing their talents, producing great racing throughout and achieving some personal best times, 50 top 10 placings including 13 medals along the way.
Lauren Dunlop, swimming in the 14-15 year age group, had a good swim to take silver in the 400IM. Struan Henry also secured silver in the boys 14-15 yrs 100m backstroke event. Both of these swimmers were back in the medal hunt in the 200m backstroke with Lauren securing a super silver in the girls and Struan swimming a brilliant pb to take bronze in the boys 14-15 year age group.
Thirteen-year-old Carter Jones swam a great new pb time in the 100m free to secure a bronze medal and Struan concluded the medal haul for day one with yet another pb in the 50m butterfly to take silver.
In day two, the swimmers were ready for another day of racing in the long course pool. Struan was first in with a medal, taking another silver in the 14-15 yrs 50m backstroke event. This was quickly followed up with a trio of medals in the 800m free with Lauren taking gold in the 14-15 yr old girls' event, Carter taking silver in the 10-13-year-old boys and Ali rounding it off with a bronze in the 16yrs+ age group.
Millie Colvin swam a solid race to claim a bronze in the 16yr+ girls 100m butterfly and Iona Kellock did the same in the girls 14-15 yrs 200m breaststroke. Carter finished off the medal count on day two with another bronze, this time in the boys 10-13 yrs 50m free.
Well done to all the swimmers and the club would also like to thank all the volunteers, including coach Ailsa Nelson.
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