Junior swimmers from Largs began their season with a series of dominant swims as the North Ayrshire team collected an enormous haul of 95 medals at the club’s Development and Foundation meets.
“There was a great turnout from our swimmers, and it was good to see so many other clubs coming along to compete as well,” reflects Head Coach, Jess Wilkie.
“It was fantastic for the club to have around 30 swimmers racing in every session, and it shows that there is a great depth in the junior squads which is always what we’re looking for.
“I thought the performances were excellent but there’s still a lot of work to be done on skills and consistency, but I can see that a lot of what we’ve been doing is beginning to pay off when the kids are competing.”
Six swimmers managed to beat their entry times in every event on the first day, including 11-year-old Angus Wark from West Kilbride who lowered his mark six times in a row, picking up two gold medals for 100m fly and 200m backstroke.
A 7 second improvement in the 200m was good enough for a silver medal and he won another in the 100m free. He also visited the podium on his first swim of the day with a bronze in the 100m backstroke.

Largs and Millport Weekly News:
Erin Finlayson, pictured above, took home a gold medal for her 400m individual medley which was a 1.86 second improvement, finishing on 7:37.59.


Lauren Peckover, from Largs, collected some of the biggest PBs taking more than 18 seconds off her 200m breaststroke and backstroke times.
12-year-old Daniel Convery, pictured below, went home with four medals, taking two golds in the 100m and 200m backstroke - both PBs – and silver medals for the 200m free and IM.

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Ciara Convery was setting her first times in three events and had a best placed finish of 8th in the 200m backstroke.
11-year-old Cameron Hamill took 15 seconds off his 200m breaststroke for a silver medal while Zoe Matchett found 15 seconds to claim a bronze for her 200m free and won another with a PB in the 200m breaststroke.
Rebecca Shanks was unlucky not to win medals for her 200m backstroke and 400m free, which were both PBs and enough for 4th places.

On Sunday Emma Binnie from Skelmorlie, pictured below, was one of three girls who dominated their age groups in the Foundation Meet to win medals every time they swam.

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The 10-year-old set close to a 10 second PB to win one of the coveted ‘Swam Too Fast’ prizes in the 200m free, going under the time limit for the event with a 2:58.13.
She won two gold medals for the 100m and 200m IM, with improvements in the region of 5 seconds, a silver in the 400m free, with a 21 second drop, and a bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Lewis Bray improved in all his events as he won gold medals for his 50m fly and free sprints. The 9-year-old, from Inverkip, was second in the 100m IM and 100m breaststroke and won two more bronze medals for his 50m breast and 100m free. Younger sister Emma took 8 seconds off her 50m breaststroke PB.
Kouper Sloss, from Largs, pictured below, won a gold medal in the 200m freestyle for 10-year-old boys and silver in the 50m race, but he’ll have been happier with his bronze medal for 100m back where he was over 8 seconds faster.

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There was a another 3rd place in the 100m IM with an improvement of more than 4 and a half seconds.
Cerys MacKellar had a clean sweep of PBs and was faster than her entry in all six races with a best of 8th in the 100m free, with an 11 second improvement, and top 10 swims in the 100m IM and 50m breast.
Skelmorlie swimmer Lucy McLaughlin’s highlight was a bronze medal for the 200m IM, which was one of six improvements she posted.
Rose Smith won a bronze for her 100m backstroke and set faster times in four other races while Hannah Matchett, from West Kilbride, posted big improvements in her 100m free, which was nearly 24 seconds better than her entry time and took 20 off her 400m free for a 6th place, and an 11 second PB was good enough for 8th in the 100m backstroke.
Sarah Coutts, from Inverkip, posted a 23 second improvement in her 100m breaststroke and sister Abbey’s best result was a 10 second drop in the same event for 10-year-olds. Kate Convery made the top ten with a 17 second PB in the 100m freestyle for 9th place.
“I was really impressed by the swimmers who took on the 400m freestyle,” says Jess Wilkie. “I’d like to encourage more of them to give it a go because they might find they’re more suited to it than sprint racing.
“We were inundated with medals and PBs and it was great to see some new faces helping out on poolside and behind the scenes.”