Scottish National Short Course Championships
City of Glasgow’s best swimmers were in excellent form at the 2016 Scottish National Short Course Championships in Edinburgh from 9-11 December. The squad of over fifty athletes placed third overall in the top club rankings, returning with an impressive haul of six medals and numerous record breaking swims.
Craig McNally was one of the leading performers in the meet, achieving a clean sweep of the men’s backstroke titles. His times of 24.25, 51.47 and 1:52.18 for the respective 50, 100 and 200m distances were all career bests with the 100-metre event also bringing the added bonus of establishing a new Scottish Senior Record! The University of the West of Scotland undergraduate has only been with the team since September and commented that he is delighted with his progress, “It’s only been a short space of time but the results so far show the move to Glasgow is going really well for me; I’ve settled into the new training programme and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do in the year ahead.”
Rio 2016 Olympian and University of Glasgow student Camilla Hattersley confirmed her status as the country’s best female distance swimmer with a dominant win in the 400 freestyle (4:05.75) and a further gold medal in the longer 800 metre event (8:26.48) where she was pushed all the way by Stirling’s Danielle Huskisson.
Chris Lowther was the pre-race favourite in the men’s 1500 freestyle but had to settle for the bronze medal despite a season’s best time of 15:33.12.
Junior international athlete Anna Fleming showed her class yet again by reaching the senior finals in all of her seven events and winning the National Junior title in six of the seven. Arguably her best performance was in the 50m freestyle where she set a new Scottish Junior record time of 25.61. Fleming will look to go even quicker this week when competing for Scotland and Great Britain at the Ontario Junior International Meet in Canada.
In the men’s breaststroke events, Jack McComish was in lifetime best form reaching all three ‘B’ finals and setting new European Deaf records of 28.52, 1:02.68 and 2:17.26 along the way. McComish, a first year student at the University of West of Scotland, has just been announced in the British team for the 2017 Deaflympics
Other swimmers who reached ‘A’ finals during the three day competition included Ryan Brown (4th 200 butterfly; 6th 400 IM, 7th 100 butterfly), Connor MacNeil (8th 200 butterfly) Martin McInnes (7th 400 freestyle), Emily Horne (4th 200 freestyle), Serena Iheagwarem (6th 200 butterfly) and Katie Shanahan (8th 400 IM). Shanahan’s performance was all the more impressive given that she is only 12 years old and her time of 4:59.83 established a new Scottish record for 12 years aged girls.
Head Performance Coach, Ian Wright commented on the club’s results: “We targeted performing well at this meet but it’s always hard to gauge exactly what form the swimmers are in before the racing starts. The whole team did a great job, both collectively and with their individual targets. Our senior athletes led the way but it was also great to see some of our junior swimmers starting to break through at this level. We will look to capitalise on these successes next week at the English Nationals and throughout 2017.”
MEDAL WINNERS
GOLD
Craig McNally Men’s 50, 100, 200 Backstroke
Camilla Hattersley Women’s 400, 800 Freestyle
BRONZE
Chris Lowther Men’s 1500 Freestyle
NATIONAL JUNIOR TITLES
Anna Fleming Girl’s 50, 100, 200 Freestyle, 50 Butterfly, 100, 200 Individual Medley
MAJOR RECORDS BROKEN
Scottish Record Craig McNally Men’s 100 Backstroke 0:51.47
Scottish Junior Record Anna Fleming Girl’s 50 Freestyle 0:25.61
European Deaf Record Jack McComish Men’s 50 Breaststroke 0:28.52
Men’s 100 Breaststroke 1:02.68
Men’s 200 Breaststroke 2:17.26
Scottish Age Record Anna Fleming Girl’s 16 years 50 Freestyle 0:25.61
Scottish Age Record Katie Shanahan Girl’s 12 years 200 IM 2:22.98
Girl’s 12 years 400 IM 4:59.83
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ASA National Winter Chamionships
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
Eight of City of Glasgow’s leading swimmers continued their strong form at the 2016 ASA National Winter Championships in Sheffield from 15-18 December. Not for the first time this season it was backstroke specialist Craig McNally who led the way, this time capturing the English national title in both the men’s 100 and 200m events. His times of 51.91 and 1:52.26 were only fractions outside his winning swims from the Scottish Championships a week earlier and confirmed that he is on track for good things in 2017.
Freestyle distance ace Camilla Hattersley was delighted to come away with lifetime best performances and silver medals in both the 400 and 800m races. Swims of 4:03.78 and 8:21.36 demonstrated her world-class standard and were significantly faster than a week prior in Edinburgh.
In the men’s 1500m freestyle, University of Strathclyde engineering student Chris Lowther swam a brilliantly paced race to set a career best time of 15:18.42 and place seventh overall. Lowther also reached the ‘A’ final of the 400 IM adding another personal best (4:21.97) when finishing ninth and came ninth in the ‘B’ final of the 400m freestyle.
Ryan Brown returned to form by winning the ‘B’ final of the men’s 200m butterfly in a personal best of 1:59.38 while Connor MacNeil also set a lifetime best in the heats with 2:04.15 for 27th place.
Rounding out the team in Sheffield were Emily Horne (50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly), Jack McComish (men’s breaststroke events) and fifteen year old Emma Scully who gained valuable experience when racing the 400m IM and 200m backstroke events.
Head Performance Coach, Ian Wright commented on the club’s results: “This competition completed our programme for 2016 and it was nice to end the year with some very positive swims. The standard was high and it brought the best out of the group, setting us up very well for the long course season in 2017.”
MEDAL WINNERS
GOLD
Craig McNally Men’s 100, 200 Backstroke
SILVER
Camilla Hattersley Women’s 400, 800 Freestyle
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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
Courtesy of Glasgow Swim Team.