Central Gala - Medal galore for Stirling

Stirling Swimming Club had its largest number of swimmers qualify for the Central gala this weekend with over 50 making the trip to Grangemouth. It was a successful day for the club with 43 individual medals won plus 5 relay teams making the podium. Many of the younger swimmers were attending their first gala and not only collected personal best times but were very much part of the team who achieved second place just losing out to Grangemouth for best overall club.

In the 10 and Under Boys Angus Cameron was joint runner up after medalling in each race. He was joined by Hamish Lang, Ian Shilladay and Cameron Harris in the relay event and although they missed out on a medal all swam well in a tough race. In the girls events in the same age group Ella Shilladay also had a fantastic day collecting four medals in pb times. In the backstroke Anastarsia Moffat had a superb swim coming from a slow heat to unexpectedly win a bronze medal with a 7 second pb time. Not wanting to be outdone twin sister Amarialla reduced her breaststroke time by 5 seconds then teamed up with Anastarsia, Ella and Beth Gallacher to achieve a great silver medal in the relay.

The 11/12 Boys saw Scott MacArthur win 3 medals in a tough age group whilst Jack Matthewson swam superbly in the breaststroke to cut his entry time by 14 seconds and Logan Henderson reduced his 200m Freestyle pb by 10 seconds. Kayrine Kelly performed to her usual high standard with four medals and was joint winner of the overall age group trophy. Also in this age group Nicola Allan had a great 200m freestyle swim and Rebecca Millar significantly reduced her breaststroke pb time.

The 13/14 year old boy’s events were particularly tough for the Stirling swimmers with a high standard of entry. Nevertheless the boys performed magnificently with some fantastic reductions to pb times. Jamie Leighton slashed a whopping 32 seconds off his 200m freestyle entry time and Fraser Johnston cut his by 27 seconds. Gareth Allen, Forrest Findlay, Craig Coull and twins David and Fraser Allison also knocked huge chunks off their pb’s in this event whilst Sage Chittick kept his best performance for the 100m breaststroke.

Stirling’s 13/14 years girls dominated this age group with Nicole Govan, Jenny Rodgerson and Nikoline Laidlaw taking 9 out of a possible 12 top 3 places and Nicole and Jenny jointly winning best girl. They were joined by Rachel Bond to easily win the medley relay. Not wanting to be outshone Laura Galletly improved her 200m freestyle time by an unbelievable 34 seconds.

The 15 years and above Stirling boys found their races very competitive but Martin Cremin, Andrew Loudon, Ross Kirkwood and Kevin Dixon pulled out a magnificent performance in the relay to win gold. Martin, Kevin and Andrew also won individual medals whilst Douglas Ormiston and Duncan MacDonald had some great swims to reduce their pb times.

Like their 13/14 team mates Stirling 15+ girls dominated. Stephanie Hanley medalled in each race and convincingly won best girl in the age group. Rosie Ogg, Fiona Gray, Katie McKenna and Morven Bruce also medalled. Not wanting to be outshone by the boys Steph, Rosie, Katie and Fiona also won gold in their relay with a great swim.

The final event of the day was the mixed relay with the club’s fastest male and female freestyle swimmers from each age group taking on the other clubs. Anastarsia then Angus led off for Stirling, followed by Kayrine, Scott, Nicole and Gareth. It was a very close race but Rosie then Kevin managed to bring the team home in 2^nd place against strong competition.