Thirty-eight City of Glasgow swimmers travelled to Aberdeen to take part in the 2017 Scottish National Open Championships from the 29 June to 2 July. The fast growing squad had a significant impact on the meet, with their haul of 13 medals (6 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze) and 45 finals from 285 swims (including 79 personal best times) helping the club finish an impressive second place in the overall team points score – their highest finishing position for many years.
Commonwealth finalist Craig McNally was one of the top ranked swimmers at the meet after collecting a clean sweep of the three men’s backstroke titles whilst Olympian Camilla Hattersleyearned a gold medal brace with wins in the 400m and 800m freestyle events as well as the bronze medal in the 200m freestyle. Hattersley was also part of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay squad (along with Emily Horne, Gulsum Onal and Eilidh Smith) that stormed to a comfortable victory in one of the fastest ever times by a Scottish team.
The club fielded strong teams in all of the relay events with success also coming from the Junior Girls 4x200m freestyle team of Katie Shanahan, Serena Iheagwaram, Kirsty Griffiths and Lauren Wetherell who won overall bronze and the national junior title. In the men’s race, Martin McInnes, Jack McComish, Joe Watt and Cameron Park combined brilliantly to win the silver medal in a very close fought battle with the Warrender team. The men’s 4×100 medley relay of McNally, Park, Ryan Brown and Grant Henderson also collected silver with another very determined effort.
Individually, there was a welcome return to form for butterfly specialist Ryan Brown after he set a career best in the 200m distance to earn the silver medal when pushing Olympic medallist Duncan Scott all the way to the wall in a very close finish. Brown later added another silver in the 100m event and as the fastest Scot in the race, was also awarded the national title.
Promising middle-distance swimmer Martin McInnes was delighted to reach the podium for the first time at a Scottish National Open Championships with a lifetime best performance in the 400m freestyle that earned him the bronze medal. In the multi-class Para events, Andrew Mullen was pleased with his in-season form winning the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle races as well as a third place finish in the 100m freestyle event.
Head Performance Coach, Ian Wright commented on the club’s results: “We were targeting a top four finish at this important meet so to rank second overall in the team points score was an excellent achievement. There were many first class individual performances but I was most proud of how the group positively supported each other, and came together as a team unit over the four days of racing.”
Final Team Points Scores:
1st University of Edinburgh 1429
2nd City of Glasgow Swim Team 905
3rd University of Aberdeen 849
4th University of Stirling 845
5th Warrender Baths Club 548
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City of Glasgow Swim Team is one of the leading competitive swimming programmes in Scotland and the UK. The club has over 300 members and is based at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre. For more information about the club, please visit:www.swimglasgow.co.uk
Press Release courtesy of Glasgow Swim Team.