Helensburgh Amateur Swimming club swimmers competed at the 2019 West District Short Course Senior and Junior age group championships at Tollcross International Swimming Centre over two separate weekends. Four swimmers met stringent qualification times to qualify at this very challenging regional event. All four returned very strong performances securing 10 personal best times over 12 events and smashing 7 club records in the process.
Owen Lyell and Fergus McEwan swam in the 11 year age group. Owen’s best performance of the day was in the gruelling 1500m Freestyle which he was swimming for the first time in a competitive environment. He secured 5th place setting a time of 22.31.44 which broke the record of 22.52.93 set by Alexander Johnson on 27/05/14. He secured 8th place and a massive PB of 74.63 seconds in the 400m freestyle setting a time of 5.42.65 which broke the record of 5.48.00 set by Alexander Johnson on 25/02/14. Owen also performed strongly in the 100m Freestyle heat securing a pb of 12.53s and a place in the final. In the final he went on to improve on his time further securing an overall pb of 13.15s and 8th place.
Fergus McEwan also had a very successful day securing strong personal best times in all 3 of his events. All of Fergus’s events were over a 100m distance. In the Freestyle he secured 22nd place and a PB of 3.67s , in the Backstroke, he secured 19th place and a PB of 2.12s and in the Breaststroke he secured 16th place and a PB of 3.69s
Alex Johnson swimming in the 16 & over age category had a fantastic weekend of swimming securing three 4th places, a 6th and a ninth place, 4 PBs across his 5 events and smashed 5 Club records.
He secured two 4th and one 6th place in the three of his events that were heat declared winners, the 400m & 200m Freestyle and the 200m Butterfly. He qualified for the final in the remaining 2 events, the 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle securing in the final a further 4th place and a 9th place. Alex broke 3 records previously set by him, in the 200m Freestyle he set a new time of 1.58.35 which broke the record of 2.00.98 set on 27/10/18. In the 100m Butterfly he set a new time of 59.86 which broke the record of 1.01.36 set on 22/02/19 and in the in the 400m Freestyle he set a new time of 4.10.07 which broke the record of 4.16.49 set on 27/10/18. Alex also smashed records previously held by others. In the 100m Freestyle he set a new time of 54.66 which broke the record of 55.58 set on 23/01/15 by Marcus Hills. He also broke the 200m Butterfly record of 2.24.45 set by Jon Law on 29/10/16 with a new record time of 2.13.36.
Rounding off the weekend Michael Payne swimming in the 14 year age group secured a strong PB of 1.28s in the 100m Backstroke in which he also took 17th place.
A fantastic performance all round.
If you are interested in joining the swimming club please visit the “contact us” page on our website: helensburghasc.co.uk.
