Alnwick Dolphins at the Scottish Nationals

Alnwick Dolphins sponsored by Alncom took a team of 7 Swimmers to the Scottish National Open swimming competition in Edinburgh.

These championships put the swimmers up against senior swimmers from all over the country. It is a great warm up meet for our national level swimmers.

The youngest Alnwick qualifier Tilly Wilson at just 13 years old swam a personal best time (PB) of 5.31.78 in the 400m Individual Medley (IM) finishing as the fastest 13 year old and 26th overall! She backed this up with strong swims in the 200m IM and 50m butterfly. Tom Robinson stormed to a best time of 57.11 in the 100m freestyle and 1.04.64 in the 100m backstroke, ranked in the top half of finishers in both. He backed these swims up on the Sunday with back to back PBs in the 50m breaststroke 33.72 and 25.72 in the 50m freestyle. This despite the races only being 15 minutes apart.

William Oliver came 30th overall in his 200m butterfly 2.21.99 and a gutsy 5.07.00 in the 400m IM coming 33rd. This bodes well for the Austrian National Summer meet which William has times to allow him to enter.

Harriet Oldfield preparing for English Nationals in a months time neared her best in a 1.01.3 100m freestyle and despite being just off her best in 100m breaststroke she ranked 22nd and just missed the final she was the 2nd fastest 16year old! She also competed in the 50m breaststroke where she was the 1st 16 year old at the meet in 35.53. She backed this up 10mins later with 28.74 in the 50m freestyle.

Sandy Brown dropped an amazing 2 seconds off his 100m freestyle time in 55.68 and came 29th in 200m freestyle 2.00.93. Fastest 15 year old in both swims.

On the Sunday he swam in the 400m freestyle In a well executed race he swam a big PB of 4.14.82. This put him in the finals for the evening session and in with a chance of becoming Scottish Junior Champion.

It was a chance he grasped with both hands!!

In a stacked final with last years junior winner as well as senior swimmers seeded higher in the final, Sandy swam the race of his life. Not panicking and going out too quickly - he tracked the leaders over the first 250m, moved up onto the shoulder in the last 100m and with a blistering last 50m time of 30.1 seconds he took touch in a time of 4.11.88 to be crowned Scottish Youth Champion. Beating our previous club record and posting the 7th fastest time in Britain for his age group this year.

The club also swam in 3 relays and were great ambassadors for Alnwick Dolphins.

Firstly the 4x100m medley relay with Tom, Harriet, William and Tilly swam a very respectable 4.34.58. In these mixed relays tactics are all important and In the 4x100m and 4x50m relays we front loaded it with the male swimmers going first to hopefully establish a lead and challenge the girls to hold the lead when the mostly male swimmers from other teams attempt to swim them down. This leads to a hugely exciting finish.

The 4x100m freestyle was a fantastic spectacle.

Tom and Sandy both racing best times to establish a sizable lead. Harriet swam a great leg to hold the advantage. This left Tilly age 13 to hold off the quickest male swimmers. She put a valiant effort in defending the lead but was just narrowly caught at the finish by less than half a second to secure the team a super 2nd place in the heat.

With those tactics working well, racing in the 4x50m freestyle, the relay team of Tom, Ruaridh, Harriet and Megan secured an excellent heat win. Tom and Ruaridh both posted sub 26 second PBs to set up Harriet with a lead which she extended. With returning dolphin Megan Park anchoring the team, the heat win was never in doubt and they secured it in 1.48.72. Over a second off their combined entry time- an excellent achievement.

On the same weekend Jamie and Eliza Hodson were competing at the regional open water championships. In the lake and out of the comfort of a pool They swam 3000m and 2000m respectively and did themselves and the club proud.

To cap the weekend off our triathlete swimmers were also competing. Finley and Emilia Waugh had an amazing double victory at the National super series event at Mallory park, racing against the best in the country. This ranks them amongst the favourites for the British Championship title in September. Anna Archibald finished in the top half of a very competitive field.

Issy Oldfield racing in the youth age group at the same event had an unfortunate clash with her bike which ruled her out of contention. She did however win the B final on the Sunday.

All the swimmers' performances are a testament to the commitment and dedication they have shown in following the training programme written and led by head coach Katy Batley.

Thanks once again go to our primary sponsor Alncom, and to the team at Places Leisure for supporting our swimmers with extra pool time which has shown through in their performances.