Scottish National Age Groups 2012

This year the Scottish National Age Groups were held at Sunderland as their normal venue Tolcross is being extended to include a second spectator area and a 50m warm up pool in readiness for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Carlisle Aquatics was represented by five swimmers Jack Barker, Laura Davison, Sophie Dodd, Ben Leighton and Lucy Wilson.

The most successful was Laura, who in the 200m Butterfly, was one of a trio that pulled away from the rest of the field at the half way mark to finish in third place in a time of 2:33.26. In the 100m Butterfly Laura’s trademark fast second half to a race saw her again a Bronze Medal in a time of 1:10.03.

Jack swam in the 100m & 200m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle, reaching the final in all three events. In the 50m Free he was placed in Bronze medal position in a time of 24.49s.  In the 100m Breaststroke he was placed 6th in a time of 1:07.28 a new PB. This event was won by Ross Murdoch (1:02.65), who is placed in the fastest 16 in the world, but did not reach the final of the Olympic Trials as he was disqualified in the heats. In the 200m Breaststroke, Jack was placed 7th in a time of 2:28.58. The winning time being 2:19.45.

Ben, in his first National event, swam the 200m Butterfly in a time of 2:42.27 being placed 16th.

Lucy, again in her first National event, swam the 200m Breaststroke in a time of 3:02.55, being placed 15th.

Sophie was the only Scot in the group swimming the 400m freestyle. She not only managed a 400m PB of 5:02.57 (14th), but also managed long course PBs for the 100m (1:11.18) and 200m (2:28.72) on the way through her swim.

All of the above should be congratulated on their performance and I hope that the experience of competing at a high level meet has enthused them to strive for greater success in the future.