27 Apr 2008 - Great performances from younger swimers in Aberdeen
Bridge of Don April Showers Meet – Sunday 27th April 2008-04-27
The swimmers all arrived bright and early and all appeared to be in good spirits. Despite the cramped poolside conditions and lack of electronic timing the swimmers remained high spirited throughout the competition, and impeccable behaviour was displayed by all.
The youngest members of the team, Jessica and Fiona got the team off to a good start by opening the gala with two personal best times and the first medal of the day. This run of personal best times continued throughout the morning with a total of 11 achieved – with an astonishing 5 second personal best time for Lisa in the girls 50m Butterfly. The swimmers and their haul of medals continued throughout the morning with a total of 4 individual medals achieved in the morning session – two for Ian in one of his first individual competitive galas and two for Jessica. The climax to the morning was the 4 x 50m Mixed Medley Relay with Dundee City Aquatics going in heat 2 of a 5 heat event with a team of three girls and one boy. The team stormed home to victory in their heat with a phenomenal 15 metre plus lead over the competition. However, there was an anxious wait while the following heats were completed. The whole team, including a few parents and poolside helpers were very relieved and moreover delighted when the stopwatch showed we had actually won the event by a clear 4 seconds. A positive end to the morning and a 5th medal gained to add to our collection. The presentations heard the loudest cheers from DCA and compliments from the host club for being one of the only few to have prepared their whole team for the relay presentations. By this point confidence levels were soaring and we could only hope the afternoon would see a repeat of these excellent swims and successes.
The afternoon session saw another positive start with Jessica clinching silver in the girls 50m butterfly. This was not the end to the medal haul with a little bit of in house competition evident in the 11 year old girls 50m Breaststroke. This event saw Rebecca pip Leah to the post by one 1/100th of a second to get a DCA Gold and Silver. Encouraged by the previous swims, Fiona swam spectacularly well in the 50m Back with an outstanding PB to bring the team home another medal – this time a bronze. This run of personal bests was not to end there however and the girls 11 years 50m Freestyle saw all four swimmers achieve personal best times, and another bronze medal, this time for Rebecca. The end of the day was in sight, and although tired the swimmers were all still smiling. The anticipation surrounding the final event – the 4 x 50m Mixed Freestyle Relay was tangible; with each of the swimmers confident a medal was within their reach. This time, fronting an all girls team we went in heat 3 of 5. It was a close swim with 4 great swims from each of the girls; however we were just pipped to the post by our neighbours St. Thomas. Not disheartened, and with two heats to go we waited anxiously to see if we could hang onto 2nd position. It would seem our day of success was not to end here and after the final relay a glance at the stop watch showed that silver was ours. Our swimmers let out a massive cheer! It was a great end to a fun day which saw our swimmers achieve a total of 12 medals, and 23 personal best times from only 34 swims. Well done!!!
Special thanks to Lynne Mclean and Elizabeth Carrie for their invaluable help on poolside, and a huge thanks to all the parents who, despite the challenging spectator conditions attended to show their support.
Lee-Anne Harvey