Newsletter July 2017

@WarrenderBC @WBC_Water_Polo @Warrender_WaterPolo

A Word from the President Good Luck to Archie, Roisin and George, we look forward to hearing all about your events in the next newsletter!

On behalf of the club, I would like to thank Coach Craig Mitchell for his sterling work over the past 7 years and to wish Craig every success in his new career as a mechanical engineer.

May I finish my introduction to the newsletter by paying tribute to Hammy Smith who sadly lost his fight with cancer earlier this month.

Jackie Lawrie President

Hammy Smith (1937-2017)

We are very saddened to let you know that Hammy Smith passed away on Monday 3rd July, after a short fight with lung cancer. Welcome to July 2017’s newsletter! Hammy has been a titan of the Scottish A club of champions! scene for over 60 years. Since our April Newsletter our swimmers and water polo players have been very busy with lots He was a top Scottish swimmer and competed of successes to be proud of. Swimmers from for Paisley and in the 1950s. After across all age groups have been competing, our graduating, Hammy taught PE in Paisley and young swimmers at their first meet at Duns, our coached the school’s swimmers becoming competitive masters racing against other UK Scotland's chief coach at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. He was also an assistant coach on swimmers at the British Masters and Senior Age the Great Britain 1964 Olympic team and went on to coach ten Olympians and 30 internationals. Group Champs at Aberdeen and Age group swimmers competing at lots of local meets. Hammy was also invited to teach in Canada and later became England's first national swimming We also entered a strong team at the East District coach with the English Swimming Association. Open competing against some top University level swimmers. Hammy lectured physical education at what is now the University of , was Scotland's swimming director for ten years and won GB's 'Coach of the Year' in 1975 and in 2002 received a The Warrender Water Polo teams have also lifetime achievement award from the British Swimming Coaches Association. enjoyed many successful games with the highlight in May when as part of the GBR team, Dominique In recent years’ he has been a linchpin of a rejuvenated Warrender Baths Club with his Zahra scored the winning goal in the last 0.1 second against Israel at the LEN European enthusiasm and passion for the club and swimming in general undimmed; coaching young Qualification Tournament. swimmers even up until last year, passing on those years of experience and inspiring to the next generation. Our senior swimmers have been very busy and you will find a full report from the head coach Hammy will be sadly missed by all in the Club and the wider swimming family; and our thoughts highlighting their successes and the selection of are with Frances, Neil and Andrew at this time. Hammy’s funeral is to be held at Warriston some of our swimmers to swim internationally. Crematorium on Friday the 21st of July at 2:15pm, to which all are welcome. Any further This includes Archie Goodburn’s selection for the information will be posted on the website. GB team at the Youth Olympiad, Roisin Ramsay representing Scotland at the Youth Commonwealth Games and George Clough who will swim at the We recognise that Hammy has played an important role in the lives of many Warrender swimmers World Junior Championships in the US. and we would like to pull together a memorial book. If you would like to contribute, please contact the club president at [email protected].

Swanston Steading 109/12 Swanston Road EH10 7DS 0131 466 0764 1 In this issue... Check out 10 things you may not know about swim meets on page 8!

Find your squad report!

Warrender’s trophy winning team at the annual Duns Meet on Saturday May 13th! See page 10.

Dominique Zahra (4th from left) picked for the GB junior men's water polo team and junior players selected for various Scotland junior teams! See page 12.

Masters racing...... and marrying! Page 13

Warrender Annual Dinner

Tickets Now on Sale!

Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

Saturday 28th October 2017 7pm till late

£45.00 per person Pre dinner sparkling drink, 3 course meal

Dress code: Black Tie

Tickets are now available for our autumn event being held in the stunning Castle Ballroom of the Waldorf Hotel. This promises to be an exciting evening out, a chance to relax and enjoy delicious food in beautiful surroundings.

Tickets are sold individually or as a table for 10. It is a great opportunity to get squad parents together, meet new parents or even host your business clients and colleagues. For further details, to book a table or reserve individual places contact Jackie Lawrie ([email protected]).

During the evening we will be holding our popular auction, which always proves to be fun and very competitive! We are now looking for new and exciting prizes, so if you have any ideas or would like to donate a prize for this or for the raffle please contact Alison Payne ([email protected]).

We are currently looking for people to help with this and future events. Please drop Jackie an email if you are interested in volunteering.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Waldorf! 2 Head Coach Report It has been a very busy term of swimming and I know most of you are now looking forward to getting some rest and relaxation over the summer! Throughout May and June, I have been travelling around to various competitions, working with swimmers at all levels of the Club as they race. There have been some fantastic performances with huge personal best times delivered! This has enabled me to work with the coaches to identify areas for future development. You will hear more about the meets and results through other reports in the newsletter.

Many of our Club's athletes will continue to train throughout July with the British Summer Championships taking place 25-30 July. We also have three swimmers representing their club and country this summer and I would like to congratulate them for their selections! Having three of our Performance swimmers selected to international teams is a fantastic achievement for the Club. I am looking forward to working with the European Youth Olympic Festival team after being appointed Team Leader for this event. My remit will be to work with and mentor the appointed team coaches and to liaise with the British Olympic Association on logistics.

The IPC World Championships take place in Mexico City in October and the selections for this meet have not yet taken place. Scott Quin will compete at the British Summer Championships which will be the selection meet for the event. Good luck Scott!

I would like to thank the coaches for all of their hard work over the course of the season. They have been very committed and dedicated and work hard to ensure each and every swimmer is able to strive to fulfil their potential. We are sadly saying farewell to some of our coaches who are moving on to new experiences after the summer.

Craig Mitchell (Lead Coach, National Girls Squad) has taken a job in engineering in Leicestershire, and will depart from the Club after six years of coaching. Craig has been an invaluable member of the Club over this time, always willing to go above and beyond his coaching duties to help out with any task that needs doing. We wish him all the very best with his future endeavours and hope that he comes back to visit us from time to time! Hana Duheric (Benson White) and Tim Whitaker (Benson Red) are both travelling abroad for a year to continue their university studies and will leave in August. Hana will travel to France to undertake the third year of her law degree, while Tim will head to Spain to further his language degree. Hana has promised she will be back with us in twelve months! Thank you to both Hana and Tim for their work and good luck for the year ahead!

I’d also like to thank Megan Lawrie for her contribution assisting Smith White on a Friday evening. Megan is off to study in Glasgow after the summer and we wish her the very best of luck.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer break. We have sessions operating over summer for those who are in Edinburgh and would like to continue some training. Remember to check your emails regularly in case there are any changes to the schedule. We will communicate by email in July to confirm squad placements for the new season. All changes will take effect from the 14th August when the normal training schedule resumes.

Lastly, many thanks to all of the parents for their support, both to the swimmers and to the Club, throughout the season. We can’t run as we do without you!

Laurel Bailey Head Coach

Scottish National Championships & Scottish Summer Meet 2017

We had two weekends of back to back racing in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, serving as preparation and target meets for a large group of athletes. The Scottish National Championships took place in Aberdeen from 29 June – 2 July, and was a great opportunity for swimmers to prepare themselves for the upcoming Summer Meets.

George Clough (bronze 200 IM) and Archie Goodburn (bronze 100 Fly) were on excellent form, both preparing to represent Great Britain later in the summer. Chris Kerr (silver 100 Brst) and Fraser Allison (silver 1500 Free) also put in some excellent performances, both fine tuning their skills ahead of the British Summer Championships at the end of the month. A fantastic team effort from Archie, George, Audai Hassouna and Fraser Allison saw the Men’s 4x200 Freestyle team take gold, 0.1 ahead of their Glasgow rivals! In his final preparation meet before his IPC World Championship trials (taking place in conjunction with the British Summer Championships), Scott Quin won gold in the MC 100m Breaststroke, posting a strong unrested time!

It was straight back to Edinburgh for the Scottish Summer Meet, held at the RCP from 7-9 July. A large team of youth athletes from JAG, National Girls, National Boys and National Performance competed across the three day meet, and for many this was the last meet of the season and the last chance to swim personal best times! There were some outstanding swims, with far too many to note in this report. The majority of swimmers dropped their previous times posted at Scottish Age Groups in April, finishing the season very positively! You can see all the results on www.swimscotland.co.uk or on our @WarrenderBC twitter page!

3 Well done to the swimmers and coaches on some excellent performances across the two weekends! Good luck to those racing at the British Summer Championships and of course to our international representatives; Roisin Ramsay (Commonwealth Youth Games), Archie Goodburn (European Youth Olympic Festial) and George Clough (World Junior Championships).

Scottish National Championships 2017 Medal Winners:

GOLD Warrender ‘A’ Men’s 4x200 Free 7:47.43 Scott Quin Men’s MC 100 Brst 1:08.07

SILVER Fraser Allison Men’s 1500 Free 16:19.61 Chris Kerr Men’s 100 Brst 1:02.84

BRONZE George Clough Women’s 200 IM 2:05.67 Archie Goodburn Men’s 100 Fly 0:56.39* Warrender ‘A’ Men’s 4x100 Medley 3:54.11

‘A’ Finalists Fiona Donnelly Women’s 100 Fly 1:02.28 * Denotes Scottish Junior Champion Fiona Donnelly Women’s 50 Fly 0:27.64 ** Denotes Scottish Age & Junior Record Calum Reid Men’s 200 Fly 2:05.16 Archie Goodburn Men’s 200 Fly 2:06.32* Archie Goodburn Men’s 50 Brst 0:29.92** Top Club Scores Archie Goodburn Men’s 400 Free 4:07.68* Archie Goodburn Men’s 200 IM 2:10.41* Archie Goodburn Men’s 400 IM 4:43.90* 1st University of Edinburgh 1,429.5 points Jonah Walsh Men’s 200 Fly 2:10.31 2nd City of Glasgow 905 points Jonah Walsh Men’s 400 Free 4:13.90 3rd University of Aberdeen 848.5 points Chris Kerr Men’s 50 Brst 0:28.29 4th University of 845 points Roisin Ramsay Women’s 400 Free 4:29.88 5th Warrender Baths Club 547.5 points George Clough Men’s 100 Brst 1:05.75 George Clough Men’s 400 IM 4:27.44 Fraser Allison Men’s 400 IM 4:39.01 Flora Nicholls Women’s 1500 Free 18:23.03 Warrender ‘A’ Men’s 4x200 Free 8:50.22 Warrender ‘A’ Women’s 4x100 Free 4:00.21 Warrender ‘J’ Women’s 4x100 Free 4:03.81 Warrender ‘A’ Men’s 4x100 Free 3:37.01 Warrender ‘B’ Men’s 4x100 Medley 4:08.46 Warrender ‘J’ Women’s 4x100 Medley 4:30.19 Warrender ‘A’ Women’s 4x100 Medley 4:31.13

‘B’ Finalists Kimberley Mackay Women’s 100 Fly 1:05.33 Kimberley Mackay Women’s 50 Brst 0:35.22 Fraser Allison Men’s 400 Free 4:08.96 Fraser Allison Men’s 200 IM 2:11.14 Fraser Allison Men’s 100 Brst 1:09.87 Scott Quin Men’s 200 Brst 2:30.31 Scott Quin Men’s 200 Brst 2:32.79 Scott Quin Men’s 100 Brst 1:08.07 Audai Hassouna Men’s 50 Fly 0:26.42 Audai Hassouna Men’s 200 Free 1:58.72 Calum Chittleburgh Men’s 200 IM 2:14.93 Calum Chittleburgh Men’s 200 Back 2:17.51 Calum Chittleburgh Men’s 50 Back 0:29.22 Jamie Macdonald Men’s 200 IM 2:14.71 Jonah Walsh Men’s 200 IM 2:15.45 Jonah Walsh Men’s 100 Fly 0:58.73 Jonah Walsh Men’s 400 IM 4:47.47 Thomas McSkimming Men’s 400 IM 4:53.50 Niamh Ritchie Women’s 100 Back 1:06.72 Katy Smith Women’s 100 Free 0:59.64 Taylor Finlayson Women’s 200 Fly 2:25.16 4 Performance Squad

The swimmers of the performance squad have just accomplished a very successful training camp in Calella, Spain. Over the course of the 10-day camp, the swimmers showed great work ethic and application while they were having fun between the training sessions. Some of the swimmers had also the opportunity to race at the 2nd leg of Mare Nostrum series held in , a really high-level meet. The swimmers enjoyed the experience of racing alongside several Olympians and world class swimmers.

The training camp served as a critical training block for the upcoming major summer competitions. In chronological order, the swimmers are competing at the Scottish Open Championships in Aberdeen (29 June-2 July) before they race at the Scottish Summer Championships in Edinburgh (7-9 July). Thereafter, Roisin Ramsay will head to the Bahamas to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Roisin is the youngest athlete on the Scottish team across all the sports.

Soon after, Archie Goodburn will represent Great Britain at the prestigious European Youth Olympic Festival in Hungary where he will be racing against the best swimmers in Europe for his age group. At the end of July, swimmers will compete at the British Summer Championships in Sheffield. This meet is of very high importance for our swimmers competing against the best swimmers in Britain. With the latter meet, the swimmers will conclude a long and tiring season and will have a well-deserved summer break. This does not apply to George Clough who will have to extend his season by a good four weeks as he will be racing at the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis at the end of August.

At the British Summer Championships, Scott Quin will be vying for a spot at the IPC World championships in Mexico at the end of September.

With all the above competitions, arguably it's going to be a very interesting and exciting summer for the Warrender swimmers. Good luck everyone!

Kostas

Calella 2017

The Performance Squad recently just got back from our 10 day training camp in the sunshine, in Calella (in Spain, about an hour’s drive from Barcelona) - a place which is becoming pretty familiar to us now as this was the third year we've been back! Nevertheless, we all love it every year and had lots of fun this time too.

We had 2 x 2 hour training sessions per day and we also had 2 sessions in the gym whilst we were away. This camp was all about "making final gains" before competing at our various key summer competitions and Kostas sure did put us all through our paces with some tough sets and lots of hard work. I think being in the sun and getting to train outdoors definitely worked its magic on us, however, because we all trained so well and because of this (and special thanks to Fiona for egging Kostas on) we managed to make room for a bit of fun when we had our 2 sessions off. The girls went for the leisurely option of paddle boarding and chilling by the pool, whilst the boys went on the obstacle course and fly-fishing (which Roisin, Taylor and Niamh decided to do too and yes, they are thankfully still all in one piece to tell the tale!).

A few of us ventured into Barcelona on the 13th and 14th June to compete at the Mare Nostrum. It was a great experience racing outdoors in the sun alongside some of the World's best swimmers (I think Fraser and George were more excited to chat to Katinka Hosszu's husband than they were to watch any of her swims though) and we managed to make time for a bit of shopping and paella before watching some of the finals.

We're all very lucky to have had the opportunity to get to go back out and train in such amazing facilities and such a fabby place; we all had a great time and who knows, maybe we'll be back again next year...!

Mhairi Swanson 5 National Girls We have had a very busy couple of months leading up to the end of the season, with lots of hard training and many away and local competitions. Everybody has done an amazing job, putting in a huge amount of effort into their swimming!

I hope you have all enjoyed the away competitions, with our last one in Aberdeen proving to be an excellent meet, really well run and provided some excellent race practice for everyone. Special thanks to our administrator Ita Corrigan for being TM for the trip! This was then followed up by our social to Elie Watersports Centre and I don't think we could have picked a better day. The girls had a fantastic time using the powerboats followed up by a couple of hours playing rounders on the beach in the sun. The majority have just had the last meet of the season, which was the Scottish Summer meet, held at the RCP. There were many finalists and a large number of medallists from the squad, but a humongous amount of PBs so well done to all who took part.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have made my time coaching with Warrender a great pleasure! I wish you all the best in the future, wherever that may take you.

Craig

National Boys That’s the 2016/2017 season over for most of the squad. An impressive year with significant progress made in so many areas. Now to enjoy a few weeks off to recharge the batteries ready for 2017/2018.

The season finished with the Scottish Summer Meet on 7th – 9th July. Some great personal best swims but also some lessons learnt (Joshua and Jamie!). I must congratulate all our medallists from the weekend: Joshua, Jamie, Sonny, Liam, Iain, Magnus and Daniel S – 5 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze medals is not a bad effort from the squad!

Now onto the British Summer Champs being held in Sheffield at the end of July. Best of luck to our two individual qualifiers, Daniel Saunders and Jamie Booth. Also best of luck to those swimming in relays: Joshua, Sonny, Liam, Iain and Lewis. Go and enjoy the whole experience.

Thanks as always to all the parents for ferrying the boys around and being a constant source of support. Enjoy the summer!

Anne

6 Junior Age Group

Thank you everyone for such a successful season, we've all been through our ups and downs this year however we have all prevailed and come out more developed athletes.

We had some astounding results at both the Incas Distance meet and the IM tough meet last month. We managed to haul in a massive 24 Golds, 27 Silvers and 28 Bronze medals across the two weekends. Also a big well done to Rebecca for winning top girl at the Incas meet and David - top boy for the IM.

For most of us our competition season has now finished however for our 11 swimmers who made the Summer Meet, one last boost of effort and we'll hopefully be able to finish this year with a bang!

Lastly a big well done to Jamie Littlefield for qualifying for his first ever British nationals.

Dale

Dale’s squad at the International Climbing centre in Ratho: ‘I never would have guessed that our biggest and toughest swimmer, Jamie, would be so scared of heights!’

Age Group What a warm welcome back! I was delighted to take up the opportunity to work with Age Group and it’s been a stellar few months for the squad.

The squad have been busy racing across different meets such as Lothian Leagues where Round 2 saw several swimmers break the ‘too fast’ barrier: Lewis Ritchie and Rebecca Shulman (200 Free) and Georgia Collins (100 Back). INCAS was a great opportunity to experience longer distances and also to apply the race tactics and skills we have been working hard on - with some top 3 podium finishes (Katherine Cockburn 2nd and Olivia Mason 3rd (800 free), Katherine Cockburn 3rd (400 free). The East District Open Water saw Archie Sorenson finish in an impressive time in the 1.5km race, only to better his 1.5km time in the pool by over a minute at the ELST meet.

With time running out to take part in meets, the squad signed up for the Cumbernauld Open which allowed the majority of the squad to have many races. The finals were extremely fast, and therefore hard to make, and some of the improvements in swimmers’ skills and race understanding were fantastic, especially in some events that they weren’t too comfortable with – so well done all!

A special well done to Adam Ritchie and Katherine Cockburn for making the 50 BC final and to Finlay Stewart for making the 50 Fly final. As the season for Age Group comes to a close, we held a fun experience along with JAG on Friday 23rd June at Craigroyston. They got to experience taking more responsibility for when they race such as their marshalling time, and also took on some races that they find challenging in a pressured environment! Swimmers then competed at the Aquanaut Graded Meet the following day, to showcase their abilities for the final time in the season!

Thank you for all your support in the short time I’ve been working with Age Group, and I wish you all the best!

Lana

7 10 things you may not know about swim meets!

"Internal" meets are those where only Warrender swimmers take part, such as a Development Meet or our own Club Championship event. These will be the swimmers’ first experience of taking part in competitions and allow them to compete against their team mates, practice racing new events, and have their times recorded. These meets are an important opportunity for the swimmers to get used to a competitive environment, in a safe and controlled environment. The development meets usually occur every six weeks or so, allowing swimmers to go back to training and build upon their skills in order to try to improve their times at the next racing opportunity. Times from these meets can be used to enter club level meets.

"External" meets are those where we enter our swimmers into a meet usually run by another Club and where swimmers from all Clubs are allowed to enter. There is usually a minimum standard which swimmers have to attain before we can put them forward for these meets and the coach will determine the most appropriate events for the swimmers to enter. Depending on the popularity of the event, there may be some rejections because the races have been oversubscribed with entries. Part of my role as Head Coach is to review the annual competition programme with each coach, to ensure we are targeting the correct and most appropriate meets for each level.

In order to run a licenced meet, the organisers need to adhere to specific licence regulations to ensure that the meet is run in a fair and appropriate way. It is a requirement to have an accredited time from a licenced meet in order to enter District and National level events. There are very few facilities in the Edinburgh area which meet the regulations in order to run a licenced meet which is why you will be asked to travel to places such as Prestonpans, Bathgate and Glenrothes for competitions.

Meet Preparation When going to a meet, swimmers should remember to take with them their WBC cap and goggles (plus spare), their costume/ jammers for racing in (plus a spare) and at least one towel. Also remember to pack your Warrender t-shirt (plus some warm clothes in case you get cold on poolside) and some suitable poolside footwear (flip flops).

If it is an all day meet then swimmers will need food with them to eat throughout the day. Snacks such as cereal bars, dried fruit, rice cakes or oat cakes etc are really good for in between races and pasta for lunch will help to restore energy before the afternoon swims! Please do not pack any snacks or food that include nuts.

Swimmers should stay hydrated throughout the day, remember that poolside is usually very hot and it is easy to become dehydrated! Make sure to have a large water bottle with you which you can refill during the day, you can add some diluting juice to this or also bring an energy drink to supplement the water.

Coaches or administrators will email parents and swimmers close to the day of the meet to finalise timings and any special arrangements for the day. You can usually access all the meet information on the Swim Scotland website (www.swimscotland.co.uk).

It is important to arrive at the venue in good time to be ready for the start of the warm up and for us to check everyone is present on the day. Coaches need to submit any withdrawals at the start of the meet for any swimmers who have called off with injury or illness. After the withdrawals have been submitted, start sheets are drawn up and circulated. These tell the coaches which heat and lanes the swimmers will be in for each of their events.

Sometimes it can be confusing as the heats might be swum according to entry time rather than age category. This means that even though you may have won your heat, you will not necessarily have won your event. The results will be sorted by age once all of the heats have been completed (this is called a Heat Declared Winner (HDW) event). You can usually access results on the Swim Scotland website (www.swimscotland.co.uk). Many parents also like to use the Meet Mobile app which is available to buy for a very low annual subscription.

Volunteers It takes a huge number of volunteers to help out in order for a meet to operate. Behind the scenes there is a team of computer people who set up the meet, and making sure all times and results are accurate. On the poolside you will see all the officials, these are made up of timekeepers, stroke judges, starters and referees. Meets also need marshalls to sort the swimmers into their heats and various other helpers. It is the responsibility of the parents to volunteer and share the workload in these areas in order that these meets can run so that swimmers have the opportunity to race. Volunteering is great fun and a good way to get to know other parents and swimmers in the Club. We will provide training and support. Our STO Convenor Richard Saunders would love to hear from you and you can email him at [email protected]

All experience is good experience whether or not you swim a personal best, win a medal or get disqualified! The coaches will feedback to swimmers after a race to talk through how they got on and how to improve next time around. Remember as a parent that it is harder than it looks and remember to congratulate your swimmers for their efforts!

Laurel Bailey Head Coach

8 Lothian Leagues 2017

Only the Top Teams were actually announced at the end of the competition and I am still awaiting the full points so here is as much as we know at present after 3 rounds of exciting racing over the four age group contests.

Girls 8/9 years A Team maintained their position to finish 3rd so well done to Ava, Corinn, Georgia and Arianna. To our B Team, Isabella, Darcie, Rose and Stella - well done on some super pb swims. Boys 8/9 years. A Team also finished 3rd. We must say a big well done to the 4 boys who competed in the final round - Dylan, Josh and Ruthven all stepped up to join Robbie and managed to finish in the medals!

Girls 10/11 years Our Teams finished in 1st and 3rd places and the points were extremely close! If I heard correctly it was Warrender B 292, Tranent 288.5 and Warrender A 288.

Those who took part in Round 2 will be aware that 2 swimmers in the A Team swam so well that they were Too Fast and therefore scored no points, which is why our B Team came out on top. So well done to B Team swimmers - Lauren, Emily, Lucy, Sarah and to the A Team Elli, Aoileann, Megan, Katie

Boys 10/11 years A Team finished in 1st place and our B team did so well to finish in 4th place having also had a couple of Too Fast swims in May. A Team was Sean, Patrick, Sidar, Gregor. A huge thanks must go to Gregor Hoole who stepped in at 9pm on Friday night when I was informed of another swimmer's illness and made up the relay team with a great 50m free swim. Our B Team also had some great swims with Sandy Beggs having a great win on IM and newcomers Ben Kelly and Murray Lamb performing so well along with Innes Tomlinson who gave a terrific lead off to their relay team. Girls 12/13 years B Team pulled themselves up to a well deserved 3rd place - Anna, Emily, Jenny and Sophie - and while our A team swam well they had a lot of catching up to do after a Too Fast swim in Round 2, and couldn't quite make it. So good efforts from Georgia, Susannah, Robyn and Olivia.

Boys 12/13 years Congratulations to our Boys who finished in 1st and 2nd place with 165 and 163 points. So well done to A Team - Ethan, Archie, Mac and Nikita and to B Team – Gabriel, Lewis, Alistair and Sebastian.

Girls 14/over Second place finish – well done to Rebecca S, Francesca, Rebecca I and Ella, a very consistent quartet. Boys 14/over Third place finish for Ruaridh, Tom, Jonathan and Finlay and well done too to the part B Team of Cameron R, Tameem and Cameron F all of whom had some excellent swims.

Thanks everyone and congratulations - especially to those who have been with us on all three steps of the way. Frances Smith Red

As ever the summer term has been our busiest in terms of competition. Our focus all term has been the 200 IM which all swimmers will swim in the June Development Meet. However with the Duns Meet in the middle of May this year we concentrated our scheme of work in the first 4 weeks on 100 swims (all events at Duns are 100 events except the 50 Fly for swimmers aged 11 and under). So for virtually all our swimmers the April Development Meet was a great opportunity to swim in the same 100 events prior to the Duns Meet. Performances were very encouraging so early in the term. One impressive highlight came in the 100 Breaststroke in which Kiera Locke swam in 1:39 becoming the first swimmer in the squad to break 1:40 in this event for over 4 years.

Our day out at the Duns Meet went very well with nearly all swimmers swimming at least 3PBs in their 5 swims. The standout swimmer on the day was Conan Cunninghan. Conan who only joined the club in February swam a very powerful 100 Freestyle in 1:14 (certainly the fastest 100 Freestyle swim for over 4 years) after earlier in the Meet swimming a strong 100 Backstroke in an impressive 1:22. On the subject of squad records I must add that Luuk Jansen swam 44:93 in the 50 Breaststroke in the Lothian League Round 2 in May. A terrific swim for a 10 year old!

At the Midlothian Minnows Meet we had 8 swimmers for this Meet and all 8 should be very proud of their efforts with PBs in 75% of individual swims. Quinn Ungless had an unforgettable day winning 6 medals overall and demonstrating that power with great technique is a very effective combination. Also nearly everyone swam in either the Boys Relay, the Girls Relay and the Mixed Relay teams. It's always great to see the effort that goes in, the volume ramp up amongst the usual fierce competition between all clubs competing.

At the time of writing, we have 21 swimmers in the June Development Meet and as I said to all swimmers at the end of our last session this is certainly the best prepared squad I have ever worked with going into the challenge of swimming their best in the 200 IM.

I have really enjoyed the fact that for the most part this term everyone in the squad has put in great effort and application as expected from me (and my 2 assistants on poolside). So finally thanks to Sam Cornish for his support and help during the last 5 terms and for the last 2 terms on Sunday evenings from Rebecca Gourlay.

Andy 9 Benson White

We would like to begin by welcoming the new Benson White swimmers into the squad! Attendance has been excellent, with almost everyone making it to three sessions a week; well done for all the hard work and commitment you have put in over the last couple of months - and also well done to your parents for managing to get you to all the sessions! We have seen huge improvements in technique and endurance even in this short time.

In May, a few of the girls competed at the Hearts Meet at Prestonpans. We had some excellent results and lots of PBs in what was a long day of racing. Well done to Zoe Wagstaff for her well-deserved bronze in the 50 breast and to Rosie Forster on a handful of fourth and fifth places!

Keep up the good work!

Hana & Thomas

Warrender’s trophy-winning team at the annual Duns Meet on Saturday May 13th. Lots of happy Wilkie and Smith swimmers! Well done everyone.

Wilkie White This last term of the year has been quite tough at training but all the swimmers have shown great attitude and determination. Well done to the new swimmers who moved up at Easter and are adapting really well to the squad. We also had some fun with a bowling night at Easter and a Karting afternoon before the summer break. I wish you all a very nice and well-deserved summer break! It has been really good to work with such an enthusiastic and nice squad! Very well done to all of you!

Laura

Fun Karting afternoon for Wilkie White! Bowling Night at Easter for Wilkie White

10 Go Owen!

On the 29th April, Owen Ray, from Wilkie White Squad, swam 10k to raise money for WaterAid, and to complete his gold JASS award.

We’d like to thank his coach Laura and friend Jamie who swam with Owen for a while to give him some moral support, and to Sandy who came along to support Owen too.

Thanks also to Jenn for booking the pool, and to all from WBC who sponsored Owen. He raised nearly £2,000 which is a fantastic result, and one which far exceeded our expectations.

Lyn Ray

Wilkie Red The Wilkie Red Team has shown great dedication and application in this last week of term; well done to all the squad! We had a fun evening at the bowling and all had a great time. It has been a pleasure to take the squad for these three months and I would like to thank Thomas, Lana and Hana for all their help supporting the training of this squad. Enjoy the summer break!

Laura

Bowling Night for Wilkie Red

Benson Blue

Benson Blue with the addition of Maya and Niamh B to the group have continued the hard work this term with a bigger focus on streamline push offs.

The April Development Meet saw a number of top quality swims: Alex, Jenna, Joel & Josh all with big pb’s in their 100FC and Isabella breaking the minute in the 50Brst!

At the Hearts competition the group had an overall successful day, with 13 pb’s all together from Anna (50 Brst/ 50 Fly), Ewan (25 Fly/ 50BC), Georgia (50BC), Ismail (50Brst), Rose (50 BC/ 50 Brst, 50 FC) and Sam in all four events. Ewan also picked up a bronze in both the 25 Fly and 50 BC, and Sam collected the set with a bronze, a silver and a gold in the 50 Breast in 50.76.

There were also a number of fantastic swims and pbs from squad members over the Lothian Leagues. Arthur 26.69 and Jess 26.13 in the 25 Fly, Darcie 51.26 in the 50BC, Dylan 57.98 in the 50 Breast, Ismail 49.50 in the 50BC and Rose 60.34 in the 50Breast.

I would also like to thank Calum for his assistance on poolside as part of his Duke of Edinburgh bronze award and hope he is able to use the skills he has learned in his future endeavours!

Well done and have fun over the summer break!

Jenn 11 Smith White

Smith White have had a great term; I am pleased with the whole squad’s progress in training. The new members from Benson: Arianna, Carmen, Eilidh N, James B, Jorge, Katie, Mhairi, Robbie and Rory have settled in and contributed to a fantastic hard working group!

Well done to all those that completed 200m swims for the first time at the April Development meet (Alex, Archie, Ben, Sidar, Gregor, Holly, Sarah G, Natalie in the 200 IM, Robbie and Eilidh S in the 200 Breast and Eilidh C in the 200 BC)! May saw thirteen of the squad travel to the DUNS Meet. They achieved 39 pb’s in total (everyone with a pb in a least one race) and 18 Top 6 finishes. Ewan, Ben and Murray swam 5/5 PBs, Arianna and Katie were close contenders for biggest pb, Arianna knocking 20s off her 100Brst (2.08) but Katie beat her to it smashing 32s off her 100FC (1.32)! After four golds and a silver throughout the day Ewan earned himself top boy in the 11U age group!

A few of our newer members conquered the Hearts meet! Jorge swam 3 pb’s and fastest 9U boy in the 25 Fly and 50 FC; Eilidh N pb’d in all four 50s; Rory was the fastest 10 y/o (in pb times) in the 50 Fly, BC, Brst and Mhairi swam a huge 4s pb in the 50 Fly! I would like to say thank you to Megan for her dedication to the squad over the past year. Her passion for swimming really camethrough and the swimmers have enjoyed having her as a coach as well as benefitting from the ideas she brought to the sessions.

I would also like to thank Libby for her assistance on poolside as part of her Duke of Edinburgh bronze award. I hope she has gained as much from her time as the swimmers have from her support.

Good luck to both of you in your future endeavours!

Well done, enjoy the summer break and bring back the energy and enthusiasm next term!

Jenn

Our winning relay team at the Hearts Novice Meet on Sunday May 14th. From left to right at the back: Jonathan Guthrie, Connor Bryce-Stafford, Holly Thompson, Eilidh Noronha. And from left to right at the front, Jorge Hidalgo-Sanchez and Rosie Forster.

Water Polo

Dominique Zahra was picked for the GB junior men's team at the LEN European Qualifying Tournament that took place in Manchester last month. The GB team were extremely unlucky to only finish third and not qualify. Dominique was picked as one of the starting seven players and played extremely well during the tournament scoring a number of goals including one with only 0.1s left of the match against Israel to give GB a 5-4 win!

Dominique (4th from left) with GB team mates

Warrender 5s Winners! Congratulations to our Senior team won our annual 5 a side tournament, the Warrender 5's. They defeated Carlisle 4-3 in a fiercely fought final match. Along with a number of Scottish teams, the tournament was attended by teams as far away as Fleetwood, Lancaster and Manchester. This was the 20th anniversary of the tournament.

Juniors selected for Scotland A number of our junior players have recently been selected for various Scotland junior teams. These include: Cameron McRobbie, Eve Meadows, Gerri Stanley, Fraser Richardson, Adam Heywood and Conall Milligan.

12 Masters

Scottish Masters Short Course, Inverness (21/22 April 2017)

Five WBC Masters swimmers won 11 medals at this event: Mark Jones (50-54) - 2 Silver, 1 Bronze; Phil Harrison (25-29) - 2 Silver, 1 Bronze - including a 24.57s 50m Free; Jonny Borland (30-34) 2 Silver; and Jason Kenney (45-49) 3 Gold; and with Ron Nolan (50-54) we saw a total of 14 PBs over the weekend.

Notably at this event there was a Masters World Record in the 50m Breaststroke with Mark Campbell (25-29 Aberdeen) going 27.18s. Sandy Galletly (WBC Life Member) also broke a number of Scottish records in the 75-79 age group.

Warrender Wedding

Two of our Masters swimmers Jonny and Kelly recently got married (now Mr and Mrs Borland).

Better than any medal - and deserved of a mention in our Masters page we think, given the Long Course event they have just embarked upon. Here’s wishing them all the best for married life (and hoping it all goes swimmingly…).

4 days after returning from their honeymoon, Jonny joined the rest of the Warrender squads in Aberdeen at the Scottish National Open, racing the 50m breast and 50m free, setting big PBs in both, showing that Kostas’ training for the World Championships in Budapest is going according to plan, and that a fortnight of ‘tapering’ in Italy wasn’t too detrimental...

British Masters & Senior Age Group Championships (Aberdeen, June 2017)

A squad of six WBC Masters swimmers competed in this terrific event superbly organised by Scottish Swimming on behalf of British Masters.

Our most successful swimmer was Jenn Davis (WBC Smith White coach, WBC/Edinburgh Uni Swimmer and water polo player with 2 Gold, 1 Silver, and a Bronze in (respectively) the 25-29 100m Back and 200m Free, the 400m Free, and the 200m IM. At the older end of the age range - Sandy Galletly (WBC life member, 75-79) took home Gold in the 200m Back; 2 Bronze medals in the 1500m Free and the 400m Free; and a 4th in the 800m Free. Jason Kenney (45-49) also saw British Masters medals and was quite happy with 2 Silver and a Bronze in (respectively) the 50m Free, 50m Fly (a masters PB) and the 100m Free. In other swims - Ron Nolan (50-54) took a 4th in the 1500m Free; Phil Harrison (25-29) raced hard to get 3 Masters PBs in four races with a speedy 4th in the 50m Free, a 6th in both the 200m Free and the 400m Free, and a 7th in the 100m Free; and Ross MacCallum (newly back to Masters swimming after ‘decades’ away from competition) stepped up in the 50-54 50m Free to get a 10th place (with 29.53s, nearly 6 seconds ahead of what he thought he might do!).

Times and results can be found here: http://www.swimscotland.co.uk/meets17/GBMasters/index.htm

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