Heart
of Midlothian ASC
Heart
of Midlothian ASC the "Premier" Swimming Club in Edinburgh
Read Zoe's reports on the Intermediate Leagues here, on the Midlothian Minnows Gala 9th June here, and the Duns Training Day here. The full set of Duns photos are in the Members page.
Hearts Sponsored Walk – Sat 12th May - Thanks to everyone who braved the rain on Saturday morning and walked the 6 miles to Leith on our sponsored walk. We had around 40 swimmers, parents, friends (and dogs!) taking part and the company was good even if the weather wasn’t. We’ll keep you posted on how much sponsor money was raised.
Read Zoe's report on the Hearts Novice Meet on 29th April here.
Read Zoe's report on the time trials on 25th March here.
News from the British Championships - a silver medal for Louise Pate in the final of the Women’s 100m Butterfly. More.
Another new British Record for Balfour, this time in the relay team. More.
World Championship Silver for Kirsty Balfour - More.
Mixed fortunes for the Hearts connected swimmers in Melbourne as Balfour qualifies second fastest in the 200 m breaststroke. More.
Kirsty Balfour is in record breaking mood again in Melbourne - More.
Read Zoe's report from the Warrender Age Group Open Meet 24/(25th) March 2007 here.
The Music Quiz on Saturday 24th March was a great success and raised £500 for club funds, thanks to everyone who came along and to everyone who helped with the organising. Results and photos from the Music Quiz are in the Social Page. We will be organising a Trivia Quiz on Saturday 30th September so please put this date in your diaries now. Further details will follow.
Pate
Joins Exclusive Flyers Club - March 3rd/4th - This season's East
District Age Group Championships came to a climax with some outstanding
Hearts performances - none finer than Louise Pate's record breaking
100 Fly effort.
With three weeks to go until the British Long Course Championships in
Manchester, one of her major meets of the season, Pate produced a surprisingly
blistering 59.67 to take the East District title well ahead of her rivals.
The time eclipsed the previous Scottish Senior Record of 59.84, gives
her a current ranking of 3rd in Britain and 22nd in the world,
and places her 6th on the list of "all time" British performances
in that event. Pate backed up this performance with a Gold in the 100
Back and Bronze in the 100 Breaststroke events and helped the female
16 years+ team to Silver medals in the medley and free relay competition.
While Pate has appeared sparingly in this series of competitions during
2006/2007, 15 year old Nicole Wilson has been in excellent form
throughout and fully deserved the award of Top 14/15 year old Girl at
the culmination of the championships. Nicole picked up Silver medals
in the 100 Free and 100 Back, Bronze in the 100 Fly and improved significantly
to just miss out on the medals in the 100 Breaststroke - a solid finish
to what has been an eye-catching first half of the season for the Scottish
National Youth Squad Member and her attention now also turns to the
British Long Course Championships at the end of March.
Pate and Wilson were at the forefront of an encouraging weekend for
the Hearts crew while in the background many of the new brigade continuing
their rise up the ranks - including bronze medals for the 12/13 years
girls in the medley and free relays. Breaststroke star Fiona Gray gradually stepped up her comeback after a long period of poor health
and Jordan Taylor made a welcome return to form with an ASA Youth
qualifying time in his 100 Breaststroke heat and final.
Congratulations to all concerned on a sterling series of performances!
Top international swimmers Kris Gilchrist, Alena Popchanka, Celine Couderc and Gregor Tait demonstrate at the Waverley Care sponsored swim on 4th February at Drumbrae.
Read Team 2012's account of their trip to Crystal Palace here.
January
roundup of competition reports from Phil. The first month of 2007
has been a busy one for the club and our swimmers have already been
making waves in the pool in both training and competition!
January 5th-7th Group 3 swimmers enjoyed a great training weekend
in Dunoon - REPORT COMING SOON
January 12th-14th The Scottish National Short Course Championships
is one of the target meets of the top swimmers' seasons and they ensured
the new year started off with a bang through in Tollcross, Glasgow.
On the first day, Louise Pate notched a new Scottish Senior Record
in the 200 Butterfly (2.15.14) on her way to victory and went on to
complete a butterfly hat-trick with comfortable Gold medal finishes
in the 100 and 50. Louise also took Bronze medals in the 100 and 200
Individual Medley and anchored the 4x50 Freestyle relay team of Lyndsey
Meacher, Nicole Wilson, Ailie McGowan to Bronze medal position. Nicole rounded up the medal tally for Hearts with another Bronze
in the 200 back. All in all, a successful championships for the Hearts
crew!
January 20th Read Zoe's report on the Livingston Development gala here.
January 20th/21st The Stirling Junior Meet is always a good test
for our younger swimmers and they all came through with merit. Hannah
Soutar and Claire Osborne were the sole medallists with Hannah bagging a brace of Silver medals in the 12 years 200 IM and 100 Breaststroke,
with Claire finishing one place behind in the latter event. Hannah also placed Fourth in the 100 Fly and Team 2012 team-mates Gemma Wimberley and Rebecca French also made finals at this high
quality age group meet.
January 21st East District Long Course Time Trials at the RCP
saw a handful of our swimmers chasing new long course PB's and gaining
valuable long course racing experience.
January 27th The finals of the Scottish Schools Championships
in Tollcross saw good representation by Hearts, most notably through Nicole Wilson making the top of the podium in the 200 Free and
taking Silver in the 100 Back. Other half Jordan Taylor backed
this up with Silver in the 200 IM and Bronze in the 100 Back. Fourth
placed finishes for Hannah Pate (100 Back), Morven Strachan (100 Fly), Ailie McGowan (200 Back/100 Free) and a Fifth position
for Connor Wilson (200 Breast) were also notable performances.
January 28th The Lothian Region Club Championships saw the team
finish 2nd in Division One with some good individual performances. The
team result was blighted by a few unfortunate disqualifications and
suffered due to the usual lack of strength in depth in the male events
but looking at the performances of some of the 11/under and 12/13 boys
things could be looking brighter in this respect in future.
January 28th Read Zoe's report on the Club Time Trials held at
Leith Academy here.
BRING ON FEBRUARY!
Balfour Honoured With Inaugural BOA Trophy - Kirsty Balfour, European 200m breaststroke champion, has been awarded the British Olympic Association's 2006 Olympic Athlete of the Year Trophy for aquatics. More.
Message from the New President!
Members of Hearts - I would like to thank you all for giving me the honour of being your President. For those of you who do not know me I will give a short resume of myself. I joined Hearts along with 2 of my 3 children at the end of 1991 having been previously members of Duns ASC. I quickly became Club Secretary and continued in that role for a number of years. I was club coach to Group 5 until I took over the organisation and running of the Learn to Swim Scheme in 2001. I am a technical official and many of you will no doubt have seen me at competitions round the country. I took on the role as East District STO Convenor which is an interesting and challenging role especially at present with the changing qualification structure.
Although I no longer have anyone swimming with Hearts, I feel that I am still very involved in swimming at many different levels. I look forward to meeting you all over the coming months. If you have any problems related to Hearts or swimming in general please do not hesitate to contact me.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year. Jo Maguire.
News about our life and former member's successes at the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki. More.
News about massive funding boost to Scottish swimming, including mention of no less than Scottish Swimming’s Director of Performance, Ally Whike, and three members of Scottish Swimming’s highly successful Scottish Performance Centre, City of Edinburgh Swimming: Gregor Tait, Kirsty Balfour and Kris Gilchrist. These names seem familiar!
More gala reports - Carnegie Mini Meet and the Edinburgh Schools Finals (for group 4A) - Thanks Zoe.
After much work, Paddy Heskett has produced the following information on the swimming successes for the last year (to November) along with information on the Internal (Club) records to date. There are 2 more Club competions to be run in December - Beat the Record and 9&10yrs IM cup.
Click here for a gala report from The Peebles Stars of the Future Meet on 11th November 2006.
A busy AGM on 28th November 2006 saw a few changes to the various Club committees. Welcome back to the main-stream of the Club to Jo Maguire who has stepped in as the new President. Jo has performed almost all of the Club's main roles over the years and brings a wealth of experience of Hearts and the swimming world to the role of President, we wish you all the best Jo. Many thanks to outgoing President Andy Smith for his work over the past 2 years. Andy will be staying on as an ordinary member of the Executive committee.
Another very big thank you to Doreen Strachan who is stepping down as Social Convener and off the Executive committee having been on for 5 years, two as Social Convener and three as Swim Convener. Doreen stays with us as the Kitzone manager. Irene Brownlee has stepped up as the new Social Convener. Thanks to all of these folk, and the 4 or 5 new members to the various committees, the club can't function without you. The full list is in the About Us page.
The Social Report as presented at the recent AGM is here. The social committee raised over £3,800 in 2006, congratulations to all who helped to raise this money.
Did you see Question of Sport recently? Hearts Life Member Kirsty Balfour was the answer to one of the questions!
We're now a couple
of months into the new season and things have been going very well on the swimming
front...
At the top end, Nicole Wilson performed excellently in the inaugural
UK Schools Games in Glasgow early September and was joined by Fiona Gray
and Jordan Taylor competing for a highly successful Scotland East team at
the National County Team Championships in Sheffield mid October.
The annual Club Championships produced some encouraging results right throughout
the club and Hearts swimmers have made big impressions at open/graded meets
throughout October with Hannah Soutar winning Top Girl in her age group
at our own Premier Age Group Meet and Sandy Waller winning Top Boy at
the InCAS Graded Meet.
Just this past weekend, the first of the East District Age Group Championships
witnessed some great swims from almost all Hearts representatives - topped off
by an East District Senior Record breaking swim by Nicole Wilson in the
14/15 years 200 backstroke (2.16.84), a time that propels Nicole into the Top
25 GB rankings.
November is a busy month competition wise for all squads and I'm highly confident
that the vast young talent that we have enjoying the sport in the development
squads at the moment will reap the benefits of a highly professional training
and coaching programme and eventually fulfil their massive potential.
A great role model for these swimmers is 18 year old Louise Pate who
is about to embark on a Stateside journey that represents one small part of
a plan aimed at qualification for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The 100m Butterfly
Scottish Record holder accompanies Head Coach Phil Potter on a Scottish
Institute of Sport funded "development" trip that first of all takes
in two weeks training at Lakeside
Seahawks in Louisville, Kentucky (home of world ranked 4th butterflier Rachel
Komisarz) followed by the chance to test herself against some of the world's
best at the US Open in Indiana 30th November-2nd December.
Phil. 6.11.06
Hearts Life Member Gregor Tait wins Scottish Sportsperson of the Year accolade - more
Congratulations to Life Member (and recent Group 3 visitor) Kirsty Balfour on her Gold and Silver medals at the European Championships in Hungary. Kirsty won her first major international and Britain’s first European Championship (50m) gold since 1999. More.
Plus at the same
meet, former Hearts swimmer Kris Gilchrist picked up bronze in the 200m
Breaststroke, well done Kris. More.
Congratulations again to Kirsty Balfour on her 2nd Gold medal at the European Championships in Hungary, this time as part of the Women's 4x 100 Medley relay team. More.
Congratulations to Louise Pate on her Silver medal in the 16/17 100 Fly at the ASA Youth & National Swimming Championships (50m). A Scottish Record apparently - more.
Congratulations to Louise Pate on her second Silver medal at the ASA Youth & National Swimming Championships, this time in the Women's Open 100 Fly. More news.
Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the sponored walk in May. We raised the magnificent total of £1106 for club funds. Top fundraisers were Claire Osborne and Rachel Mackay and prizes will be going to both girls very soon. We'll definitely be doing this event again next year and will probably do the other half of the Water of Leith walk from Slateford to Leith, about 6 miles. Thanks again everyone and hope to see you all at the bagpacking fundraiser at Morrisons at the Gyle on November 4th.
Report
from the MILNGAVIE + BEARSDEN graded meet (
).
Thank you to everyone who bought tickets for the annual SASA raffle; together we have raised £198 for Club funds.
The coconuts were bought, the sun shone, the crowds gathered; we made money! £256 to be precise. Thanks to all those who kindly gave up an hour or two of their time to man (or woman) the stall at the Corstorphine Fair.
Group 4 Update
- June 06 - Hi all, here's another update with what's been happening
with the group. Tremendous results at last week's novice gala! Before I mention
the medal winners, I would like to congratulate ALL the swimmers who competed.
There were some excellent PB's achieved by every-one with some of you taking
as much as 10 seconds off your previous 50m times! This is all due to hard training
and an excellent coach(!!??)! Congrats to Katherine French - gold, silver and
bronze, Claire Metcalfe - gold and bronze, Rachel Mackay - 2 silvers, Rhiannon
Mackay - silver, Sandy Waller - 2 golds and bronzw, Daniel Southam - silver,
Robbie Jack - silver, and Jamie Waller - bronze. Not a bad bunch of medals!
Well done to you all!
Now we have a couple of events comong up next week starting with the Mini Meet
at Whitburn on Saturday 10th. It's only for the afternoon so should be fun!
Susan and I will be poolside for that one, so behave yourselves!! We then have
the Duns training day on the Sunday. Really looking forward to that! Lots of
swimming, land training, talks and, of course.....Football and Rounders!! By
the way, we'll need a couple of footballs and a baseball bat please. And remember
to add a bit extra in your packed lunches.....for the coaches (especially Phil...He's
greedy!!) Finally, at the end of the month we have the final time trial of this
season. Try to be there as it's the last chance for you to obtain new times
ahead of the new season in September.
Robert Rae, 4 coach.
The sponsored walk along the Water of Leith was on Saturday morning 6th May. The photos and report are in the Social Page.
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Commonwealth Games Silver medallist and British Record holder Kirsty Balfour drops in on a Group 3 training session, another typical day with Hearts ASC! Full set of photos in the Members page.
Group 4 report
April 2006. Where
do I start? At the minute we have a healthy sqad of around 26 swimmers with
about a 90% attendance rate which is pretty good! We just need to get the other
10% to give up Brownies, Scouts, Skiing, Dancing, Tennis and Football which
aren't NEARLY as exciting as swimming!! Come on you lot, it's just habit!
Swimming rocks!! Anyway, the squad is really training hard just now and
the quality of the swimming is terrific. We have done a bit of work lately on
"thinking through a session", concentrating on quality swimming and
although most of them have very small brains(!), I have to say they coped very
well. It's great to see the group now competing in galas and this shows more
than anything how much effort they are putting in to
training! A final note, it's now coming in to the trampoline season with all
the injuries that go with it. So I have to ask a BIG favour: Parents,
if your kids ask for one, tell them they're too dear and your garden's not big
enough!! If you already have one...............HIDE IT!!! Robert Rae,
Coach
Saturday, Day 5 of the British Championships and the two Hearts girls were back in the pool once again in Sheffield, doing the heats of their 200's. Live results.
Louise swims yet another PB (61.41) in the final of the 100 Fly on Day 4, to finish 5th overall - lest we forget, this is in the Open, British, Championships!
Day 3 at the British Championships and both girls were in heats and semi's today, Louise in the 100 Fly and Fiona in the 50 m Breaststroke.
Day 2 from Sheffield. Louise did 28.24 in the final, to come 6th. After her final, Louise said, "Although dissapointed not to go faster in the final I've got to be happy with how things have gone for me and I can't wait for the 100 heats on Thursday morning".
British Championships/European Championships/European Junior Championships Trials - news of Louise Pate and Fiona Gray from Day 1.
News from the last day of the Scottish National Open Age Group Championships. Another Hearts hat-trick today - this time for Nicole Wilson. Results.
We should not forget that many other Hearts swimmers were competing in this meet, and they should all be congratulated for their efforts, some just narrowly missing out on medals.
Results from the 3rd day of competition at the Scottish National Open Age Group Championships;
Coach Potter noted "A day of consolidation for the team with some very tough racing - the last day should be a rousing finale to a great championships."
Results from the second day at Tollcross;
"Adding 8 to yesterday's medal haul is a great achievement for the Hearts girls and they haven't finished yet" said Coach Potter.
News from the first day of the Scottish National Open Age Group Championships in Glasgow, Hearts have got off to a fantastic start with;
Coach Potter commented "A great start for the team with the promise of much better to come over the next 3 days" - and he was right!
Final Commonwealth Games news (for now) - Gregor Tait had the real honour of carrying the flag for Scotland at the Closing Ceremony, and the dubious pleasure of swimming with sharks for the BBC!
The final day of the Commonwealth Games swimming competition produced the following;
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Another fantastic day in the pool for Scotland and their Hearts connected swimmers. On day 5,
Day 4 and Kirsty and Gregor were in semi-finals in the 100's this morning.
Day 3 and three Hearts connected swimmers in Finals - Gregor Tait was in pole position for the 200 Back and favourite for the Gold. Meanwhle Kirsty Balfour had "the swim of her life" to qualify in fastest time for the 200 Breaststroke, ahead of Liesel Jones and Brooke Hanson from Australia. We also had Kris Gilchrist in the 100 Breaststroke final - what a day. Outcomes below;
News about Kris Gilchrist's progress as he qualified for the final of the 100m Breaststroke on Day 2 of the Commonwealth Games. Kris produced a new personal best time of 1:02.76 during his semi-final.
Congratulations to Scotland’s Caitlin McClatchey and David Carry who both struck Gold as they made a dream start on Day 1 of the Commonwealth Games leaving Scotland top of the swimming medal table after day 1. (More). Look out for hopefullly similar results from Hearts Life Members Kirsty Balfour, Kris Gilchrist and Gregor Tait over the next few days. Schedule and Results.
News about former Hearts coach Gordon Glasgow is here.
Read the glowing report from the East District Finals weekend here.
Congratulations to all the Hearts swimmers who took part in the Scottish Schools finals, but particularly to Nicole Wilson who got Gold in the 15/16 100 Backstroke, Jodi Gordon who got Gold in the 17/19 200 IM, Louise Pate who got Gold in the 17/19 100 Fly, Jordan Taylor who took silver in the 17/19 100 Backstroke, and Viv Fleming who got Bronze in the 17/19 Breaststroke.
More record News of Kirsty Balfour and Kris Gilchrist.
Paddy has posted a letter of "Thanks" here for all to read.
Hearts swimmers
excelled at the recent Scottish Short Course Championship held at Tollcross,
Glasgow. The results below highlight some very high quality performances from
our top female swimmers led by Scottish Institute athlete Louise Pate,
East Institute athletes Nicole Wilson and Fiona Gray, and also
Jodi Gordon (currently receiving no support).
Below these swimmers there is a group of fast emerging, talented young females
but unfortunately the lack of male athletes within the club will make it hard
for us to progress much further up the Top Club Rankings in the near future.
This is something that is hopefully being rectified further down our structure
and we'll hopefully see the result of that in the coming years.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
GOLD: Louise Pate 100 Fly 1:00.72 - East
District 17/18 record, places her 5th in the current GB rankings
SILVER: Louise Pate 50 Fly 27.84 - East District Senior record, places
her 4th in the current GB rankings.
Louise Pate 200 Fly 2.17.60 - Scottish National Champion, East District
17/18 Record, places her in the top 15 in the current GB rankings.
Jodi Gordon 400 IM 4.55.71 - places her in the top 20 in the current
GB rankings.
BRONZE: Womens 200 Medley Relay (N Wilson/Gray/Pate/Meacher)
2.01.94 (inside the previous Scottish Club Team Record)
We had 19 individual appearances in A finals and many more in B finals. Other
notable non-medal winning performances include:
Fiona Gray 4th in 200 Breast (2.34.58)/7th in 100 Breast (1.13.20)/8th
in 50 Breast (34.82)
Nicole Wilson 2nd in 100 Free B Final (59.13) ranked 6th overall
AGE GROUP SECTION (14/under)
SILVER: Nicole Wilson 400 IM 5.06.23
BRONZE: Nicole Wilson 400 Free 4.26.61
Performances in the age group section were encouraging with many top 10 finishes.
Overall we were 8th Top Club of the championships (one of the clubs in front
was Aegir from Iceland).
Congratulations to Megan Wilson and Jack King, the winners of the Xmas 2005 9/10 IM Cup - no broken records this year! The full results were; Girls - 1st Megan Wilson, 2nd Hannah Dodds, 3rd Lorna Blair. Boys - 1st Jack King, 2nd Sandy Waller, 3rd Ross Farquhar.
More news about Gregor Tait and Kris Gilchrist - heading for the European Short Course Championships in Trieste as part of a Great Britain squad. Seems to be more news daily on these swimmers.
News about a Gold medal for Life Member Gregor Tait at the Welsh Winter Meet.
News about another British Record broken by Life Member Kirsty Balfour.
News about former Hearts coach Ally Whike's appointment as Scottish Swimming's new Director of Performance.
News
about two of our three Commonwealth Games swimmers - a new Britsh Record for
Kirsty
Balfour and a PB for Kris Gilchrist at the FINA Swimming World Cup
meeting in Durban on
11-13 November 05.
Photos from the
Presentation Night on Saturday 12th November 2005 are in the Members
area.
Looks like it was a very good night. Susan
Pate won a bottle of whisky as her £1 coin was
closest to the bottle – we raised £33. The raffle on the night
raised £87.50 – many thanks to all
who donated prizes. Finally, grateful thanks must go to Sue Wilson, the
Swim Convenor, who
organised all the trophies and medals and spent Saturday morning polishing all
30 of them!
Three
Hearts swimmers have been selected for the Scottish
Team to compete at the XVIII
Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia next year (15-26 March 2006).
Congratulations
to Kirsty Balfour 100m, 200m Breaststroke, Kris Gilchrist 200m
Breaststroke and Gregor Tait
100m, 200m Backstroke on their selection.
News about Hearts swimmer Carol Thain in the 2005 French Open Water Championships.
The £100
lottery has been won - the winner was Alister Blyth and the swimmer
who sold
the ticket is Lindsey Blyth from Group 2. Nearly 45% of swimmers returned their
sheets and
the lottery raised over £200 to club profits. Thank you
to all who took part in this
fundraising event which will help keep club fees down.
You may have noticed
in the recent squad restructuring that long time coach and all round
Hearts-type person Paddy Heskett quietly stepped down from her coaching
duties. Judging
from the swimmer profiles,
Paddy has been one of the major influences on our
young swimmers of late (2nd only to "my mum").
All at Hearts
would like to give her a big Thankyou for all the
time she has
spent coaching with the Club. Courtesy of Jo Maguire, a brief biography of Paddy's
time to date at Hearts is here.
Announcing the
new squad structures
(from October 2005) - and you can see
which squad you are in (if you don't already know) by checking out the Squads
Page.
The new squad structure is explained in this diagram
(.ppt)
Photos from
day 1 of the 2005 Club Championships are in the Members area
- hope you remember the password!
Check
out a swimmer's persepective on what it is like to
be involved in a major National
meet - Louise Pate reports from the 2005 ASA Youth Championships
at Sheffield
- Report.
More medal News
from Sheffield 2005 courtesy Scottish
Swimming - Hearts swimmers
Louise Pate and Gregor Tait win more medals.
News from Sheffield
2005 courtesy Scottish
Swimming - Hearts swimmers Louise Pate,
Kris Gilchrist and Gregor Tait are in the medals.
Highlights from the 2005 ASA and Scottish Nationals.
Hearts Life Member
Flora
Connolly was inducted into the International Masters Swimming
Hall of Fame.
More.
CLUB CHRISTMAS (2004) FUN DAY, news and results.
Louise Pate selected
for the Commonwealth Youth Games. More.
Results of Louise's competition.
Highlights from the 2004 ASA and Scottish Nationals.
Report from the Intermediate Leagues Round 1 2004 - Musselburgh.
East-District Age Group Championships - February 2004 report.
Catch up on all the news from December and January 2004.
CLUB CHRISTMAS (2003) FUN DAY, results.
Meet Reports - September to November 2003. More
AGM 2003 - New Office Bearers. More
The 2003 Club Championships Results spreadsheet and prizewinners.
Hearts Sprint
Gala - Saturday 11th October 2003, Ainslie Park Leisure Centre.
The results are available here for Session
1, Session
2 and the overall scores.
Significant results
from the boys heats on 7th October 2003 and the girls heats
of the
Edinburgh Schools on 30 September 2003 are summarised below.
Louise's big splash is also in the "News" !
Final Day of the nationals and yet another bunch of medals. The last individual medal went to Louise Pate who got Bronze in the Womens 50 Fly. The 11/12 yr female team took Bronze in the 4x50 Free and the 15/16 yr female teams took Gold in the 4x50 medley Relay and Bronze in the 4x50 Free Relay. Congratulations to all those who took part in these Championships.
Day 5 and another batch of medals. Nicole Wilson bags another brace with Bronze in the 14 yr 400 IM and Bronze in the 14 yr 100 Backstroke. Jodi Gordon struck Gold in the 16/18 yr 400 IM and Louise Pate took Bronze in the Womens 100 Fly.
Fourth day of the Nationals and second medals of the week for both Nicole Wilson (Bronze in the 14 yr 200 Free) and Kirsty Balfour (Gold in the Womens 200 Breaststroke). Add to that Silver for John Owen in the mens 1500 Free... and Nicole picks up her second medal of the evening with Bronze in the 14 yr 200 Backstroke.
Day 3 and another medal, Silver for Louise Pate in the 16/18 yr 100 Fly.
Day 2 of the Nationals and the medals start pouring in. Fiona Gray got Bronze in the 15 yr 200 Breaststroke and Vivienne Fleming did the same in the 16/18 yr age group. Jennifer Lockhart also took Bronze in the 15 yr 200 Fly and the first Gold of the week went to Louise Pate in the 16/18 yr Fly. Life member Kirsty Balfour also struck Gold in the Women's 100 Breaststroke.
The Nationals got underway at Tollcross - several Hearts swimmers were in finals on day 1, and the first Hearts medal of the week went to Nicole Wilson who got a Silver in the 14 yr 200 IM. Update - Aitken Robertson took Bronze in the 15yr 200 Breaststroke.
Hearts Life Member Flora Connolly was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame on 8th January 2005, in Florida USA! Flora was the only Briton to be receiving this award this year, along with 8 others, and became one of only 32 Brits in the Hall of Fame since 1965. This is a tremendous honour, congratulations from all at Hearts.
Not one, but TWO new records were beaten at the 2004 Christmas Fun Day by Kelsey Rodger. 25m breaststroke – new Club record of 18.34 - 10 years since it was last beaten, and 25m butterfly – new Club Record of 15.43 - 3 years since it, or any other record, was set.
Also, the top three results from the 9/10 year old 100m Individual Medley were; Girls: 1st - Brogan Stacey 1.41.40, 2nd - Sophie Stoneham 1.48.81, 3rd - Suzy Maxwell 1.50.50. Boys: 1st - James Barr 1.41.69, 2nd - Jack Southam 1.42.53, 3rd - Craig Barbour 1.47.02.
Full results :
Beat
the Record: 9/10
100m Individual Medley Cup: and 100m
Individual Medley Time Trial. (All 
)
Club swimmer Louise Pate was picked as one of the 69 athletes to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, Australia. Full news release.
Here is a summary of Louise's progress;
Day 1 - 50 Fly - and Louise came 6th in the heats (29.38) and improved to 5th in the Final (29:07) - brilliant, and her best event still to come!
Day 2 - 100 Fly - and after the heats Louise was in 5th place with a time of 1:05:48 - a time which she improved by over a second to 1:04:33, coming 5th again in the Final, and just missing out on 4th by 2 hundredths, however ....
.. Louise won a Bronze Commonwealth Youth Games medal swimming the Fly leg of the Scottish Women's 4 x 100 Medley Relay team. A tremendous achievement, congratulations from all at Hearts.
Day 3 - 200 Fly - and Louise was in 5th place again after the Heats with a time of 2:22:16, her favourite place it seems, as she also finished 5th in the Final with a time of 2:22:34
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Photoshoot from down under - this has to be a caption competition - please email your suggestions to Douglas 1. Please Louise - trust me - just keep the ear plug in whilst swimming your race and listen to my instructions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Anon 2.
Phil: ''I’m thinkin of growing a beard when I get back home!" 3. Phil, I'm the one who's working hard around here.......get up and give me your seat at least! 4. Phil, what advice can you give me - quick - I'm just about to swim!......read the sheets yourself Louise, can't you see I'm busy trying to catch some sun here! |
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Heart
of Midlothian Amateur Swimming Club swimmer Louise Pate has
been picked as one of the 69 athletes to represent Scotland
at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, Australia at the
end of November.
Louise, who turned 16 the day after the announcement was made by the Commonwealth
Games Council for Scotland, will swim in the 50, 100 and 200 butterfly as part
of a 14 strong swimming team at this multi-sport event comprising 24 Commonwealth
nations at which all athletes have a date of birth of 1986 or later.
Louise qualified for the team with an outstanding performance at the ASA Youth
Championships in Sheffield at the start of August. Her 100 Butterfly semi-final
time of 1.03.64 was not only within the tough qualifying time for the Commonwealth
Youth Games but eclipsed a 14 year old Scottish Junior Record
and broke the East District Senior Record.
Commenting on that performance and on confirmation of her selection to the team,
Hearts coach Phil Potter said: "Louise has worked extremely
hard for her success over the last few years and has shown unerring commitment
— despite battling a serious back complaint over the last 12 months — to do
'whatever it takes' to get to the top. Her summer performances and her subsequent
selection are just rewards for her effort and dedication. She is a girl who
can go much further."
Louise said: "I am so excited at the prospect of competing for Scotland
in a country I've always wanted to visit. I aim to work extremely hard in the
next few months and beyond and use this event as a springboard to try to qualify
for the full Commonwealth Games in 2006 and the Beijing Olympics."
She will commence her preparations for the big event by attending an intensive
training camp in Calella, Spain, from 17 to 24 October along with the rest of
her Hearts Group 1 Elite squad-mates. Her training schedule includes nine pool
sessions per week, a total of 16 hours water-time, alongside three strength
and conditioning sessions weekly.
Gregor Tait swam in two Olympic Finals - Gregor swam a time of 1.59.28 in the final of the 200 Back and came 7th in what seems like a controversial result (BBC News report. Judges comments). Gregor was also part of the TeamGB who made it to the final of the Mens 4 x 100 medley relay and finished 8th.
Well done Gregor from all at Hearts for making it to two Olympic finals.
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Kirsty Balfour swam 2.28.92 and was 5th in the semi-final of the 200 Breast - narrowly missing out on a place in the final. Kirsty was also part of the Womens 4 x 100 medley relay team who swam in the final but were unfortunately DQ'd. Well done Kirsty from all at Hearts for making it to an Olympic final.
Congratulations to David Davies for his bronze medal in the 1500 Free and congratulations to Stephen Parry for his bronze medal in the 200 Fly.
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Balfour and Tait honoured by Hearts on the eve of medal bid. Edinburgh’s premier swimming club - that's us , Hearts - have given the city’s Olympic heroes their highest award – making Kirsty Balfour, Gregor Tait and Ian Edmond life members. Heart of Midlothian ASC decided to confer the honour on the three swimmers as they launched their bids for Olympic glory in recognition of their efforts in getting to Athens and because of the inspiration they provide to young swimmers. Press release. And more (from the Evening News - 17th August). |
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| Olympians Ian Edmond, Kirsty Balfour and Gregor Tait received their Life Membership awards from former President Diane Duguid and Head Coach Phil Potter at the Presentation night in November 2004. |  |
Bring on Beijing!
Final day of the ASA Nationals and Dane Forbes secured 4th place in the 16/17 yr 100 back Final whilst Louise Pate came 5th in the 14/15 yr 100 Fly Final, the highest placed Scot in this event. These are magnificent achievements by these swimmers and congratulations to all those involved.
Some more great swims from Hearts members Louise Pate and Dane Forbes at the third day of the ASA Youth Championships at Sheffield. They have both qualified for Finals, Louise in the 100 Fly, in a time of 63.64 which is a new Scottish Junior Record, which cements her place in the Scottish Youth Squad for another year and which meets the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Youth Games. Dane got his Final place in the 100 Back. Viv Fleming also made it into the semi-finals today - in the 100 Breast.
Dane Forbes achieved another two PB's on day two at Sheffield, securing 4th place in the 17/18 yr 200 Back Final in a time of 2.08.95, which is just inside the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Youth Games - well done Dane!
Some great swims from Hearts members Louise Pate and Dane Forbes at the first day of the ASA Youth Championships at Sheffield. Dane swam a good PB in the 200 free and Louise did a very good time in the 14/17 years 200 Fly to reach the Final. Louise also took 3 seconds off her 400 IM PB, well done to you both.
Last day of the Scottish Nationals - and it's sprints and relays - can Hearts improve on their already impressive medal haul? They certainly can! - Silver for the Girls 15/16 Medley Relay team (Caroline, Viv, Louise and Jodi) and Bronze for the Girls 13/14 Medley Relay team (Jenny, Fiona, Morven and Kristi). This takes the total medal count to 17 - an improvement of almost 6 times on last year. The usual suspects featured in other finals - John Owen taking second place in the 1500 Free Grand Final and also doing well in the 50 Free, Jamie Burns in the B 50 Breast, Fiona Gray and Viv Fleming in the B 50 Breast, Alan Pate in the B 50 Back, Dane Forbes in the 50 Back and Louise Pate in the 50 Fly. Well done to all the swimmers who competed this week.
Results from day 5 of the Nationals already in - Louise Pate picks up medal numbers 6 and 7 of these Championships taking the Silver in the 15 yr 400 IM (and was the highest placed Scot at that) and Silver in the Womens 100 Fly. In the same event Jodi Gordon secured the Bronze medal. Others making the top ten today were Laura Steeples again in the same event, Viv Fleming in the 16/18 category of the 400 IM, John Owen in the Mens 400 Free and Jamie Burns in the 15 yr 1500 Free.
Day 4 of the Nationals and the medals keep coming! - Dane Forbes gained Silver in the 16/18 200 Back, Fiona Gray gets another medal with Bronze in the 14 yr 100 Breast. Also, Louise Pate adds to her collection with Bronze in the 15 yr 100 Breast. Loads of other Hearts swimmers reached Finals today, Fiona Gray and Jodi Gordon in the Womens 200 Breast, Caroline Emslie in the 15 yr 200 Free and the 200 Back, Alison Fleming in the 14 yr 100 Breast, Jodi in the 15 yr 100 Breast, Viv Fleming in the 16/18 100 Breast and John Owen just missing out on the medals in the 1500 Free. Great work team!
Louise Pate takes her 4th medal of these Championships with the Silver in the 15yr 100 Fly. Solid performances also from Dane Forbes taking Silver in the 16/18 100 Back and coming 4th in the 16/18 200 Free, Morven Strachan who came 6th in the 14 yr 100 Fly, Jenny Lockhart who came 10th in the same event, Carol Thain with a 5th place in the Womens 400 Free, Laura Stevenson with 8th in the 11/12 200 IM, and Jamie Burns with 10th in the Mens 200 Breast.
Day 2 of the Nationals - and the medal tally today is four taking the total so far to seven. Top billing again goes to Louise Pate with a Gold in the 15 year 200 Fly and Silver in the 15 yr 200 Breast. Team-mates Jodi Gordon and Caroline Emslie came 5th and 6th in the latter event. Fiona Gray took the Bronze medal in the 14 yr 200 Breast and 9th in the Womens 100 Breast. Viv Fleming got medal number 4 with Bronze in the 16/18 yr 200 Breast and she came 7th in the Womens 100 Breast. Her sister Alison came 9th in the 14 yr 200 Breast. Other notable swims were Dane Forbes with 5th place in the 16/18 yr 400 Free, Carol Thain with 9th in the Womens 200 Back and Catherine Garner with 10th in the 16/18 yr 100 free.
Three medals from the first day of the Nationals! - Congratulations to Louise Pate for her Gold in the 15 years 200 IM, Jodi Gordon for her Bronze in the same event and to Jamie Burns for his silver medal in the 15 years 200 Breaststroke - a Youth Squad B time. Other notable peformances from John Owen (6th in the mens 200 free, Dane Forbes (4th in the mens 100 Back), Carol Thain (7th in the womens 400 IM), Ramsay McMahon (9th in the 15 years 200 Breaststroke) and Nairn Pike (9th in the 14 years 200 Breaststroke). Well done to these and all the Hearts swimmers at Tollcross today.
The best placing for this round 1 is the 10/11yr boys team who came 2nd. Well done to: Matthew Tansini, Alistair Kennedy, Tim Sawrey and Alasdair Dean
34 PB’s were achieved at these February Leagues – well done! I would like to give a special mention to the following swimmers because they achieved at least 9 second PB’s : Lindsay Strachan, Hannah Pringle, Amy Barr, Kirsteen Macdonald, Mark Steeples, Kenny Wiles, Lucy Barr, Craig Macdonald, Callum Kottis, William Brown.
Several swimmers swam ‘Too Fast’ for the time bands and congratulations go to: Devon Dewar, Kirsteen Macdonald, Mark Steeples, Lucy Barr, Craig Macdonald, William Brown. The only problem with swimming too fast, other than not gaining league points, is that I will not be able to swim you in that event again!!
Well done everyone!
Paddy Heskett
A tally of 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals from the first round of the 2004 Championships was evidence of a successful weekend in Glenrothes but perhaps even more impressive was the 90%+ personal best strike rate and the exceptional strides forward shown by some of the up and coming Hearts young hopefuls.
Carol Thain
(2.23.25) and Dane Forbes (2.07.83) made it a quickfire double
victory in their respective 16+ years 200 Backstroke finals, both coming out
on top as they held their nerve in close fought finishes. Carol added to her
win with a 2nd place finish in the 200 IM while Dane also improved to finish
4th in his IM race.
Louise Pate bagged a brace of medals with Silver in the 14/15
years 200 Fly and a Bronze in the 200 IM with an excellent best time of 2.27.71,
a race in which she was followed home by Caroline Emslie and
Jodi Gordon. Caroline enjoyed a successful weekend with further
final appearances in the 200 Fly and 200 Back, finishing the latter just outside
of the medals with Jenny Lockhart immediately behind her.
Nicole Wilson was a shock medallist in the 12/13 years 200
Fly (2.41.93) as she slashed her previous best time to overcome her elder rivals.
Nicole also finished in the top six of the 200 Back behind team-mate Morven
Strachan (4th) who was unfortunate to miss out on the spoils in the
200 Fly after a good heat swim and also picked up 5th in the 200 IM.
Hannah Rutherford picked up the remaining Bronze medals with
strong performances in the 16+ years 200 Fly (2.31.35) and when finishing behind
Carol in the 200 Back (2.24.84). Hannah also finished 5th in the 200 IM behind
sister Emma and in front of Catherine Garner.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Lindsey Strachan and
Jade Johnston impressed greatly with top six finishes in the
11 years section. Newly promoted to JAG 2, Lindsey decimated her previous best
to claim 6th place in the 100 Free final (1.12.97) and also posted another 6th
place finish in the 200 IM behind squad-mate Jade (2.57.71).
Jade was also one of the many to progress from the Qualifying Rounds of the
50/100 metres events into the May ‘Grand Final’ round and the success of Hearts
swimmers in these events was one of the highlights of the weekend and demonstrated
substantial improvements throughout the squads.
Qualifiers for May were:
11 years 50 Free – Jade Johnston/Paul Maxwell; 11 years
50 Breast – Felicity Aslet/Jade Johnston; 12/13 years 100 Breast
– Morven Strachan; 12/13 years 100 Free – Nicole Wilson/Kristi
Wilson; 14/15 years 100 Free – Keryn Rodger/Alison Fleming/Fiona
Gray/Jamie Burns; 14/15 years 100 Breast – Lucy Barr;
16+ years 100 Free – Viv Fleming.
Congratulations to all involved in another profitable and progressive weekend
for the club.
Sunday 21st December, Leith Academy from 12.00 – 16.00
The full results of the 9/10 year 100 IM's are here;
and here are the results from the Beat the Record.
February 1st – Standard Distance Test # 3. Another round of impressive results with all the kids showing an increased desire to succeed and improve at this test. Only two more this season!
January 31st – Scottish Schools Championships. Excellent performances from Hearts trained swimmers at this meet headed up by two Group 1 Elite swimmers. Craigmount High pupil Louise Pate retained her 100 Fly title with an impressive 1.06.39, while Viv Fleming of Portobello High improved significantly to place 2nd with a much coveted ASA Youth Qualifying time of 1.18.08 in the 15/16 years 100 Breast. Fiona Gray and Carla McGlynn also picked up Bronze medals in their respective 100 Breast events.
January 24th/25th – Stirling Junior Meet. 12 year old Nicole Wilson took top billing at this high quality junior meet. JAG 1 Swimmer Nicole slashed all of her previous best times and took the Top Girl Award for the 11/12 years age group – taking Golds in the 200 Free (2.19.23) and 100 Back (1.12.39), Silver in the 100 Fly (1.14.16) and Bronze in the 100 Free (1.05.05). Further Bronze medals were picked up by Jodi Gordon (14 years 100 Breast 1.20.43); Fiona Gray (13 years 100 Breast 1.20.28); Jenny Lockhart (14 years 100 Back 1.13.26) and the meet proved to be an excellent one for many more of JAG Squad’s fast emerging youngsters.
January
17th – LDD Development Gala. (by Paddy Heskett and Susan Barr). For
some swimmers this was their first gala and all tried their hardest in the swims,
attempted good starts and turns and most achieved Personal Best times - In fact
30 PB’s in all! Special mention to Catriona Young who obtained
1st and 2nd places, Alasdair Dean gained two 2nd’s and Craig
Robertson and Jack Southam both got a 2nd place each.
As an added bonus to us the swimmers were beautifully behaved and a joy to have
'on the team'.
It was lovely to have Hayley Preston demonstrate the strokes
for us all. Although Hayley now swims mostly for City of Edinburgh, she is a
Heart of Midlothian swimmer. Now 18, Hayley joined Hearts when she was 6 years
old - thanks Hayley for signing all those hats and programmes.
Once again we must thank all parents who helped with officiating - these galas
cannot go ahead without them!!
January 10th/11th – City of Glasgow Long Course Graded Meet. A very useful experience of competing in a long course pool for many of the up and coming youngsters in the club - with excellent performances from all involved.
January 10th – Lothian Region Club Championships and Telfer Cup. Hearts swimmers swept the board in Kirkcaldy with victories in both the Lothian Region Club Championships and Telfer Cup competitions. The former was comfortably won over nearest rivals Haddington thanks to an excellent all round team performance but the Telfer Cup was a much closer affair with Hearts retaining the title thanks to a one point victory over city rivals Warrender. Well done to everyone who played a part in the two successes.
December 27th-January 3rd – National Youth Squad Training Camp. Scottish Youth Squad member, Louise Pate enjoyed an intensive training camp at the National Swimming Academy in Stirling over the New Year period. Working alongside the cream of the country’s youth swimmers Louise ‘did a great job from start to finish’ according to National Youth Coach, Alastair Johnson.
December 21st – Christmas Fun Day inc. Beat the Record and 9/10 IM Cup. An entertaining afternoon saw all the 11/under records stay intact for another year while Kelsey Rodger and Alistair Kennedy took the honours in the 9/10 Years 100 IM Cup. The day was finished off in the usual festive style thanks to Robert and Paddy!
December
11th-14th – Scottish Christmas Open. The Hearts medal tally from this
popular end of year meet in Inverness showed a very favourable comparison to
that from 2002. Medals are not everything of course but add the 12 medals (2
Gold; 5 Silver and 5 Bronze) won by Hearts trained swimmers (plus those won
by John Owen who was competing under the Hearts banner for
the last time here) to the numerous best times and finalists from the meet and
there is good reason to be pleased with the overall performance and hopeful
for greater success ahead.
Two Gold medals in the 15/16 years butterfly events (1.05.22 and 2.26.01 (East
District 15 years record)) and a Silver in the 400 IM from Louise Pate
underlined her class and was a timely boost in confidence for Louise who has
had her training badly disrupted by injury over the last 4 months. Hopefully
with her back problems almost coming to an end, Louise can now look forward
to continuing her upward curve and enjoy another successful year in 2004.
Five medals for Carol Thain and gaining the Top 17+ Female
award was just reward for an excellent series of swims in Inverness. Carol's
medal haul was made up of 3 Silvers in the 400 IM, 400 Free and 800 Free and
2 Bronzes in the 1500 Free and 200 Breast - all but the 800 in lifetime bests.
Viv Fleming
continues to improve while demonstrating her outstanding racing ability and
captured a great silver medal in the 100 Breast with another second lopped off
her previous personal best (1.16.50). Viv also improved in the 200 to finish
fourth behind Carla McGlynn who just missed out on the silver
in making further improvements since her recent move to the club.
In a great breaststroke weekend for the squad, Jamie Burns
displayed his emerging talent on a national scale for the first time and was
immense in picking up 2 Bronze medals in the 13/14 years 100 and 200 events
in best times (no less than a 5 second drop on the 200) and impressed in the
1500 Free and Individual Medley events - with very swift breaststroke splits.
December 11th-14th – European Short Course Championships. British
Record-breaking swims by City of Edinburgh based Hearts members Kirsty
Balfour and Gregor Tait contributed to an excellent
showing by the Great Britain team who narrowly missed out to Germany on the
top nation title in Dublin.
December 7th – Bo’ness Winter Meet. A small Hearts contingent travelled through to Grangemouth and produced excellent results and gained valuable experience. The highlight was an outstanding 100 Breast victory for Fiona Gray (1.19.84) and she was backed up by medal winning swims by squad mate Lucy Barr in the same age group (Silver 100 IM, Bronze 100 Free).
December 7th – Standard Distance Test # 2. More highly encouraging results all round with many significant improvements made right throughout the squads. Thanks again to all the parental help on the day.
November 23rd – Carnegie Mini Sprint 10 year old Alistair Kennedy took top billing with a full set of medals at this high quality junior meet. Recent recruit Alistair impressed with the following results: Gold 50 Fly (41.95); Silver 50 Back (42.86) Bronze 50 Free (36.56) and backed it up with a 5th place finish in the 50 Breast. Rosa Brownlee excelled with a Silver medal in the 10 years 50 Back (40.08) and Tim Sawrey topped off a great series of swims with a Bronze medal in the 9 years 50 Back (43.45). The medal tally was topped up with a Bronze medal for the girls in the 10/11 years 4x25 Free Relay on another successful day for the Hearts youth.
November 22nd – Inverleith 200 Gala Amidst a heavy period of training the club’s top swimmers put together some solid performances in Dunfermline. The 200 Breaststroke proved to be a profitable event for the club with a 1-2-3-4 in the Girls 15+ category: Ailsa Docherty (2.43.17) just holding off a much improved performance from Carla McGlynn (2.43.66) with Carol Thain and Caroline Emslie following them up. Jamie Burns continued his rapid progress with Silver in the Boys 13/14 category (2.41.60) and Jodi Gordon took Silver in the corresponding girls event (2.52.99) with Fiona Gray close behind in Bronze (2.53.64). Catherine Garner showed good form to take the 15+ 200 Back in 2.27.13 and Carol Thain again took Bronze in that event but went one better when just missing out on the 200 IM title (2.31.52). Jodi Gordon took Bronze in her age group 200 IM while Morven Strachan was impressive in taking Bronze in that category’s 200 Free (2.19.11);
November 21st-23rd – Stockport Junior Long Course Meet 15 year old Viv Fleming was the star of this high quality meet for the small Hearts team of three. Viv impressed with great early season times in taking bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 Breaststroke (1.19.92 and 2.50.57). Louise Pate and Hannah Rutherford unfortunately both suffered a bout of seasonal illness at an inopportune time and subsequently under-performed over the course of the weekend.
November 20th – Edinburgh Schools Finals Hearts swimmers were noticeably to the fore at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Particularly impressive were the winning breaststroke quintet of Kirsteen Macdonald, Fiona Gray, Viv Fleming, Ailsa Docherty and Jamie Burns and special mention must go to the hard fought butterfly victories of Emma Bonthrone, Nicole Wilson and Richard Stoneham who added to Louise Pate’s expected success in her age group fly event. Louise also took the 200 IM title and further victories went to Emma Rutherford (100 Free), Hannah Rutherford (100 Back), Jenny Lockhart (100 Free).
November
15th – Lothian Region Graded Meet. An excellent meet at Whitburn for
our up and coming youngsters with all of the swimmers present posting excellent
personal best times and valuable racing experience. Special mention to victories
for Hannah Pate (100 Breast); Fiona Gray (100
Free); Lucy Barr (100 Fly) and to Jade Shahfar
who posted an excellent heat time in the 100 Back but narrowly missed out on
the title and a clean sweep for the Hearts 12/13 year old girls. A list of medal
winners follows but everybody at this meet performed admirably and deserve a
heap of praise:
Lindsey Strachan (2 x Gold 1 x Silver); Aidan Hewitt (1 x Gold 1 x Silver);
Ashleigh Singer (1 x Gold); Craig Macdonald (2 x Silver); Ryan McKenzie (1 x
Silver); Kenny Wiles (1 x Bronze); Devon Dewar (1 x Bronze); Rachael Spencer
(1 x Bronze)
November 8th – InCAS Graded Sprint Meet and Presentation Evening A raucous and successful day on poolside at the InCAS meet at Carnegie turned into an even more raucous affair for some at the annual Presentation Evening at the Royal High School Rugby Clubhouse.
November 1st/2nd and October 4th/5th – East District Open Championships separate report to follow.
October 18th/19th – Alloa Graded Meet A small Hearts contingent travelled through to Bellshill but with excellent results produced by all at this popular graded meet.
October 17th-26th - Palma de Mallorca Training Camp 20 of the club’s top swimmers endured a 9 day training camp at the Son Hugo Swimming Complex in Palma de Mallorca, An excellent week of (very) hard work (15 sessions totalling 31 pool hours and 85 kilometres covered) has set the group up for the demands of the season ahead! See the story of the week in pictures at the members only page.
October 12th – Standard Distance Test # 1 Encouraging results all round with some swimmers performing the 1000 metres for the first time and many swimmers stepping up in distance from the previous test. The test has proved to be a definite success and a useful indication of progress for the squad coaches and many thanks must go to the parental help on each occasion.
October 11th – Hearts Sprint Meet Another opportunity for Hearts’ future stars to display their collective talent and they certainly didn’t disappoint with a glut of encouraging performances – particularly in the morning session. Ashleigh Singer was awarded the prestigious Sedgefield Trophy for her promising performances throughout the morning and
September – Club Championships. One of the most successful and heavily subscribed Club Championships for some time showcased some fast emerging talent throughout the club and reflected the new breed of Hearts swimmers’ hunger for competition! All the prize-winners have been honoured and presented at the Presentation Evening and full results can be found in the News Archive.
The new committees as elected at the AGM on 26th November are listed in About Us page. Welcome to new President Diane Duguid and new Secretary Lenore Kennedy and big thanks to outgoing office bearers Robin Whike and Jo Maguire.
Both have been loyal servants to Hearts over the years, none more so than Jo Maguire. Jo has been - Club Secretary since 1992, a Club Delegate on the East District since 1992, East District Gala Officials Convenor and Time Band Meets convenor, Secretary and Meet Convenor for Lothian Region, East District Flying Start manager, the Hearts Learn-to-Swim coordinator to name but a few - oh, and a Mother to 3 children - oh, and she holds down a full time job as a Senior Radiographer! * Thanks again for all you have done for Hearts to date, and we hope your new challenges are as successful.
* - this is a summary of the article by Alex McLeod-Bain published in the newsletter in May 2002. For those who might have mislaid their copy, to read the full article, click here.
Summary of final placings for Hearts swimmers from the boys heats of the Edinburgh Schools Championships.
11 year & under 50 m freestyle.
7. Edward HIPWELL
11 year & under 50 m breaststroke.
9. Alistair DEAN (1st reserve)
11 year & under 50 m butterfly
3. Mark STEEPLES
11 year & under 4x50 m relay
1. Heriots A
2. Watson's A
3. Watson's B
4. Watson's C
5. MESMJS A
6. Merchiston Castle
7. Watson's D
8. Flora Stevenson
9. Heriots B (1st reserve)
10. Deanpark (2nd reserve)
Summary of final placings for Hearts swimmers from the girls heats of the Edinburgh Schools Championships.
11 year & under 50 m freestyle.
2. Ashleigh SINGER
6. Felicity ASLET
8. Kara MURRAY
10. Leuty PARKER (2nd reserve)
11 year & under 50 m breaststroke.
1. Kirsteen McDONALD
7. Sarah ROBERTSON
9. Emma CLEE (1st reserve)
11 year & under 50 m backstroke
2. Lindsay STRACHAN
3. Rosa BROWNLEE
11 year & under 50 m butterfly
1. Amy BARR
2. Emma BONTHRONE
4. Kelsey RODGER
11 year & under 4x50 m relay
1. Flora Stevenson
2. Heriots A
3. MESMJS A
4. Watson's A
5. St Georges
6. Deanpark
7. Fettes College
8. Heriots B
9. MESMJS B (1st reserve)
10. Watson's B (2nd reserve)
12/13 200 m IM
3. Morven STRACHAN
14/15 200 m IM
1. Louise PATE
2. Jodi GORDON
3. Kirsty MacKENZIE
16 & Over 200 m IM
2. Ailsa DOCHERTY
Open 400 m freestyle - results!
Gold - Laura STEEPLES
Silver - Keryn RODGER
Bronze - Lucy BARR
a clean sweep - how about that!
Back to Top
July 31st-August 3rd – During one of the most successful summers ever for Scottish swimmers, CES based Hearts member Joel Roberts comes to the fore at the ASA Youth Nationals in Sheffield with top ranked Brit performances in the backstroke events and is backed up by Top 8 swims from Hayley Preston.
July 31st-August 4th – Group 1 Elite swimmers Laura Steeples, Jodi Gordon, Caroline Emslie and Ramsay Macmahon travel with an Edinburgh Schools representative team to Denmark.
August 14th-17th – With National Records seemingly falling in every final, Gregor Tait and Kirsty Balfour make sure they don’t miss out with fine record breaking victories at the GB Short Course Championships in Stockport. Kris Gilchrist also impresses with a fine swim in the 200 Breaststroke and Gregor and Kirsty are later rewarded for their performances with selection to the GB team for the European Short Course Championships to be held in Dublin 11th-14th December.
Group 1 Elite swimmer Carol Thain keeps herself busy throughout the summer with excellent performances in Open Water events throughout the country and further afield. Carol takes the silver in a 5km event in Northern Belgium and is also the 3rd woman home in a Scottish 1-2-3 at the English Open Water Age Group Championships in Nottingham – while John Owen takes the 17-24 years title in the same event. Carol also excels in Scarborough and Loch Lubnaig among other places and is said to be now relishing the prospect of a different kind of open water swimming at October’s Palma training camp!
Carol’s squad mate Colin Johnstone enjoys a successful summer with outstanding performances at Learning Disabilities championships in Glasgow, Sheffield and Dublin – well done Colin!
Louise Pate picked up Hearts first gold by winning the Girls 13/14 100m Fly Final in the first meet record time of 1.05.79. This is also a qualifying time for the Scottish Youth Squad. Well done Louise!
Other Finalists were Vivienne Fleming (6th) in the girls 15/16 100m Breast and Caroline Emslie (7th) in the girls 13/14 200m Breast.
Vivienne Fleming reached the Final of the girls 15/16 200m Breast and was the fastest of the 15 year old Scottish swimmers finishing in 7th place.
Our women's 4 x 200m Freestyle relay team have finished 7th, one of the highest placed non-composite teams! ...
... and Louise Pate has picked up her second medal of the meet by coming 3rd in the girls 13/14 year 400m Individual Medley. Louise followed this up with 6th place in the final of the 13/14 200m Fly.
Hearts members Kirsty Balfour and Hayley Preston, swimming for CES, came 4th and 7th respectively in the women's 50m Breast Final. And their Hearts/CES colleague Gregor Tait took Gold in the 200m Back Final.
Kirsty Balfour picked up Silver in the Final of the 100m women's breaststroke and team-mate Siobhan Edgar finished 5th in the 200m Fly Final.
O
