Heart of Midlothian ASC

"The Heartbeat of Swimming in Edinburgh"

News Archive A report on the Peebles Stars of the Future Meet can be found here and a report on the Lothian Region Graded Meet can be found here.  Duns 2009 - Pictures in the Members' Page 29 swimmers from groups 4 and 5 attended this popular fun training day at Duns. We were lucky to have a sunny day, the use of Duns new school gymnasium and a slightly modified Duns SC pool situated on the original site. We started in the gym with some aerobic stuff, stretching exercises then some coordination tests (more ideas required here!) Then we split into two groups for running relays and various games to engourage various aspects of skills needed for competition eg team building activities led by Robert and reaction, speed and agility games led by myself. We were lucky to have the help of Len Fyfe (Rebecca - Group 5) who was a great sport and a great help poolside. We then crossed the road to the pool where we concentrated on backstroke technique and turns before enjoying a much deserved lunch (without wasps!!) followed by some football, rounders and boulles for anyone who wanted to conserve their energy for the afternoon pool session where we concentrated on IM turns, before the fun relays and the best part of all.......chucking the coaches in the water!!! Including Len who joined in the fun. Many thanks to Susan Pate for all her work coordinating the trip again for us. A difficult task at the best of times, but made all the more tricky due to holidays and her jungle survival weekend! Also thanks to Len again for his help and photo-taking. I have asked for a couple of pictures to be put up on the members' web page. If you don't know the password ask one of us for it. A lot of photos were taken on the day which are too numerous to put on the web. I will put them all on a cd and if anyone wishes, I can get a copy to the relevent people (only open to attendees of Duns 2009) Please e mail me or see me at training. Well done to all the swimmers The behaviour was fantastic. Everyone tried their best and enjoyed the experience, judging by the singing on the bus home! Very tuneful but where was the chorus and verse 2 ?- After 5 miles of the same 3 lines being sung over and over, there must have been a second verse! The bus driver was very patient I have to say! Robert, Len - I don't think we could have worked them enough because they usually sleep on the journey home. We'll remember for next year folks!! Zoe Gray (Coach) Reports from recent galas can be found using the following links: REN96 Graded Meet, Midlothian Minnows Gala and Hearts Novice Gala. A report on the Livingston and District Dolphins Development Gala can be found here. A report on the recent Peebles Stars of the Future Meet can be found here Jamie Waller was the hat-trick hero for Hearts at the first leg of the East District Age Group Championships held in Glenrothes 1st/2nd November. Competing in the 10-11 age category, Jamie took a clean sweep of his events with impressive victories in the 400 Individual Medley, 200 Freestyle and 200 Breaststroke. Jamie's feats were backed up by "top six" performances from older brother Sandy (12/13 400 Individual Medley), Gemma Wimberley (14/15 200 Backstroke) and Rosa Brownlee (16/over 400 Individual Medley) while Megan Wilson and Hannah Soutar produced good 100 Freestyle swims in their age groups to qualify for the March "finals" weekend. Stuart Forbes and Dave Bell flew the Hearts flag at the recent ASA Masters Championships in Sheffield. Stuart took Gold in the 45-49 years 100 Individual Medley in a new Scottish Record time of 1:06.46 and backed that excellent effort up with Bronze in the 100 Breaststroke and 200 Individual Medley. Competing in the 30-34 age category, Dave recorded 18:26.18 in the 1500 Freestyle for a hard earned Silver medal. Congratulations to the following Hearts swimmers who have been selected onto Scottish Swimming's District Regional Programme for 2008/2009 after fulfilling the Bronze level criteria throughout the 2007/2008 season: Hannah Dodds; Rebecca French; Alex Marshall; Claire Osborne; Tilly Sawrey; Hannah Soutar; Sandy Waller; Jess Wilkie; Megan Wilson; Gemma Wimberley. The team of 10 will take part in three training days in September, October and December and will vie for the opportunity to be put forward to National Stroke Camps in early 2009. We would also like to welcome new coach Andrew Relf to the club. Andrew takes over the coaching of Group 3 and we wish him all the best at Hearts ASC Hearts ASC are pleased to announce that Head Coach Phil Potter has recently signed a new contract with the club. About to enter into his eighth year at the helm of the club, Phil's signing on for the next two years is a fantastic boost for the club and maintains stability and continuity at the club as we look to go from strength to strength over the coming months and years. Hearts Masters swimmers Stuart Forbes and Magnus Hebden Smith picked up medals aplenty at the recent Inverclyde Masters Meet. Keeping himself busy throughout the weekend, Stuart collected 6 Golds with three of them in Meet Record times while Magnus grabbed a brace of Bronze medals. Very well done to both and we look forward to hearing news of more great results from the Masters! Louise Pate made a massive contribution towards overall success for Team GB at the inaugural Tri Nations Cup held in Quebec City, Canada. Competing in her signature event, the 100 metre Butterfly, Louise placed 2nd behind team-mate Jess Dickons in a time of 1.00.89 and secured maximum points for her country in the meet that saw tough competition from Canada and France. Held in conjunction with celebrations marking the 400th Anniversary of the founding of Quebec City, the cup is due to be hosted in Great Britain in 2009 and will continue until 2012. Team GB were comfortable victors with 264 points to Canada's 239.5 with France further back on 162.5. Congratulations to Louise and the British team from all at Hearts!  Louise Pate has been selected to the Great Britain team to compete at the Tri-Nations Cup in Quebec, Canada on 1st/2nd August. Head Coach Phil Potter has also been selected onto the team staff for this inaugural event which pits Great Britain against teams from Canada and France. Congratulations to both from all at Hearts The fast emerging new breed of Hearts age group swimmers competed with distinction at the recent InCAS Distance Gala (21st/22nd June) at the Fife Institute in Glenrothes. The group representing Hearts was low in quantity but high in quality and proved this by lifting the "Top Club" trophy with excellent individual performances from all involved. Gemma Wimberley was one of the most decorated performers, winning 5 out of 5 events and lifting the "Top 14 Year Old Girl" award. Congratulations to all concerned! Further representative honours for Louise Pate, this time with selection to the Scottish team competing in the Slovenia Open in Kranj from the 12th-15th June. Phil Potter has also been named among the squad of 3 staff and 13 swimmers attending this high level international meet. You can see a picture of the 8/9 year girls winning the Intermediate Leagues 2008 after completing the 3 Rounds on Saturday 14th June here. A report on the Midlothian Minnows Meet (7th June) can be found here. Congratulations! All at Hearts would like to congratulate Masters coach and long time club member Andrew Maguire and his partner Vicky on the birth of their first child. Finlay David Thomas Maguire weighed in at 7lb 12oz on Saturday 31st May at the Royal Infirmary and all involved are doing extremely well. This great news also makes President Jo Maguire a proud granny! A huge thank you to everyone who helped out at the Hearts Novice Gala especially to Pauline Rankine who pulled it all together but it was a supreme team effort. The atmosphere all day was great and the noise during the Cannon relay will not quickly be forgotten!. A Report on the Novice Gala (25th May) can be found here The following are some of the Team 2012's comments on their very successful training camp to Shetland in May 2008 "I liked training with the Shetlanders and I thought the competition was good" "GREAT" "A great experience!"" "Excellent, The Best, Amazing!" "Very tiring and enjoyable" "Very good experience! I will never forget it! AMAZING!" "Very fun! I'll never forget it!" "Very good. Great fun and training was good!" "It was really good and I enjoyed it very much" "Really good fun! Especially the ferry!" "It was a great experience. It was amazing!" Thank you very much to Cheryl, Susan and David, not forgetting the Shetland team, who all did a grand job in organising everything and ensuring the swimmers had a fantastically successful training camp experience. Roll on 2009!!! An article on the Team 2012 Training Camp in Shetland can be found here. Congratulations to all the Hearts swimmers who performed with distinction at the recent Glasgow Long Course Meet (3rd-4th May). The star of the show for the club was Gemma Wimberley who grabbed a Bronze medal in the Girls 14 years 1500 Freestyle with a time significantly improved from her showing at April's Scottish Age Groups and only 3 seconds outside qualifying for the ASA Youth Championships. Special mention to Jodie Wilson and Szymon Durlo who won the Overall Category at the recent second stage of the Development Grand Prix at Leith Academy (27th April). There were some excellent performances at this exciting event. Some acknowledgements from Head Coach Phil Potter concerning achievements and performances by Hearts swimmers at recent meets: *Louise Pate - Scottish Record and finalist in 100 Fly at GB Olympic Trials *Connor Wilson - Scottish Age Group Champion and Silver Medal in 800 Free; Silver Medal in 1500 Free plus ASA Age Group Qualifying Times on 200/400/800/1500 Free at Scottish Age Groups. *Jordan Taylor - Bronze Medals in 100/200 Breast at Scottish Age Groups *All finalists and those who performed with distinction at the Scottish Age Groups over the weekend. Congratulations to Dave Bell and Magnus Hebden-Smith who scooped medals while representing the club at the recent Scottish Masters Championships 25th March) at Tollcross, Glasgow. Dave, swimming in the B (30-34) Age Group, won the Gold in the 100 Free and picked up Bronze in both the 50 Back and 200 Free, while Magnus snatched Bronze in the 50 Breast for the C (35-39) Age Group. Fantastic efforts from both guys and a tribute to the excellent work of Andrew Maguire with the rejuvenated Masters/Club Squad! We are very happy to have 2 new people join our social committee, Fiona Ogilvie (Sarah Group 5) and Lesley Fair (Susan Group 2012 and Louise Group 5). A report on the Lothian Region Club Championships (27th January) can be found here. A report on the Livingston Development Gala (19th January) can be found here

Incas Distance Meet - 23rd and 24th June - The Incas Distance Meet on the 23rd and 24th of June saw some of hearts youngsters pick up a host of medals.  Congratulations go to Gemma Wimberley who won GOLD in the 800 frontcrawl (13/14) in a swift time of 9.44.91  Gemma also picked up 4th place in the 400IM.  Rosa Brownlee had a very good meet, picking up 3 top 6 places: 3rd in the 200 Fly, 5th in the 200 IM and 6th in the 400 frontcrawl.  Connor Wilson, following an excellent 1500 swim at the start of the month continued to show his true form for this event by picking up a bronze.  Connor also got a bronze in the 400 frontcrawl and 6th in the 400 IM. Congratulations go to Connor for qualifying for the ASA National Age Group Championships in July. 10 year old Sandy Waller enjoyed the experience of swimming longer distance events.  Sandy's successes include 5th in the 200IM and 400 frontcrawl, 4th in the 400 IM and 6th in the 200 frontcrawl.  Well done Sandy!  Rebecca French got 4th place in her 200 Breaststroke, easing under the 3.00 barrier in a time of 2.55.29  Jamie Waller, Claire Rankin and Jenny Betchley all swam very well gaining good experience of these distance events.  Overall a very encouraging meet for the team.

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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

• Fiona came 14th in her heat, in 2.39.49 and improved to 13th in the Semi-final.
• Louise swam 2.23.10 to come 18th in her heat.
• This brings to a close what has been a terrific experience for Louise and Fiona, well done to you both from all in the Club.

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.

• Louise swam 1.01.67 to go 4th into tonights semi's, just inside her previous best, and looked very good with it we are told. Fiona swam 34.59, going 17th into the semi's, also a PB.
• Louise then did 1.01.48 to go 5th into the final on Friday, another PB! "solid stuff" remarked Coach Potter. Fiona also got herself another good PB, doing 34.45 to finish joint 15th. Fiona quipped "that was a real confidence boost after Tuesday's swim and ahead of my 200 on Saturday, I'm going to be cheering like crazy tomorrow night for Louise", allegedly.

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.

• Louise finishes in 28.07 in the Womens Open 50 m Fly, lying 4th into tonight's semi-final. Fiona's 1.15.20 in the Womens Open 100 m Breaststroke means she does not progress to the semis. "Louise has put down a great marker for the rest of the week and will look to progress to the final in the semi tonight. A shame for Fiona not to progress but she's got her best event to come at the end of the week" commented Coach Potter.
• Semi-Final update - Louise gets a 28.13, joint 5th going into Wednesday night's final. "Things are continuing to go well for Louise and she'll be aiming for a sub 28 effort tomorrow evening" said Coach Potter.

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News from the last day of the Scottish National Open Age Group Championships. Another Hearts hat-trick today - this time for Nicole Wilson. Results.

• Gold for Nicole in the 14 yr 400 m IM,
• Gold for Nicole in the 14 yr 100 m Backstroke,
• Silver for Jodi in the 16-18 yr 400 m IM, and
• Bronze for Nicole in the 14 yr 200 Free.

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;

• Gold for Nicole in the 14 yr 200 m Backstroke,
• Silver for Nicole in the 14 yr 1500 m free, and
• Bronze for Laura in the same event.
• Bronze for the 400 m Free relay team of Nicole, Jodi, Laura and Louise.

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;

• Gold for Fiona Gray in the 15 yr 100 m Breaststroke,
• Gold for Louise Pate in the 16-18 yr 200 m Fly,
• Gold for Nicole Wilson in the 14 yr 200 m IM,
• Silver for Nicole Wilson in the 14 yr 400 m free,
• Silver for Jodi Gordon in the 16-18 yr 200 m Fly,
• Bronze for Jodi Gordon in the 16-18 yr 200 m IM,
• Bronze for Laura Stevenson in the 14 yr 200 m IM, and
• Bronze for the 800 m free relay team (Nicole, Jodi, Laura & Louise).

"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;

• Gold for Fiona Gray in the 15 yr 200 Breaststroke,
• Gold for the Girls 14-17 yr Medley Relay Team of Nicole, Fiona, Louise and Jodi - a new Scottish Club Team Record!,
• Silver for Nicole in the 14 yr 100 Free,
• Silver for Jodi in the 16-18 yr 200 Breaststroke, and
• Bronze for Nicole in the 14 yr 800 Free.

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!

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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;

• Kris Gilchrist just missed out on a medal in the 200 Breaststroke by 0.5s in what was a very close finish. Result.
• Kris however did get his medal (in his first Games!) as part of the 4 x 100m Medely Relay team which took the Bronze medal. Gregor Tait was also part of this team, bringing his medal haul to 2 Gold and 2 Bronze medals!
• Kirsty Balfour was a part of the Womens 4 x 100m Medely Relay team which came 6th.
• Biographies of the "Hearts" swimmers - Gregor, Kirsty, and Kris who picked up 7 medals between them helping Team Scotland come 3rd in the swimming medal table.
• This has been a superb performance by the whole Scottish Team, it has really raised the bar, and is a fantastic example to set to all the swimmers in Hearts!
• Full results.

Another fantastic day in the pool for Scotland and their Hearts connected swimmers. On day 5,

• Kirsty Balfour took the Bronze in the 100 m Breaststroke final. Result.
• Congratulations also to Caitlin McClatchey who gets another Gold, this time in the 400 m Freestyle becoming the second Scottish swimmer to win two Commonwealth Gold medals since David Wilkie in 1974
• Gregor Tait first took Bronze in his 100 m Backstroke final (Result) and then topped it with Gold in the 200 m Individual Medley (Result) becoming the third Scottish swimmer to win two Commonwealth Gold medals since David Wilkie in 1974 - in only 2 days!
• "The Most successful team in any sport in Scotland's history! (in the Commonwealth Games)" BBC News. More.
• And to top it all, Head Coach Potter appeared on the Radio Forth news telling the world all this success is down to the improved coaching in Scotland!

Day 4 and Kirsty and Gregor were in semi-finals in the 100's this morning.

• Kirsty is safely through to the final of the 100 m Breaststroke tomorrow, qualifying in fourth place.
• Gregor is also through to the final of the 100 m Backstroke tomorrow, also qualifying in fourth place.
• Scottish Swimmers continued their remarkable run of success with a superb one-two in the Men's 400m Individual Medley final, with David Carry becoming the first Scottish swimmer to win two Commonwealth Gold medals since David Wilkie in 1974. More.

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;

• Gold for Gregor, making history in the pool for Scotland with the 3rd Gold of the Games propelling Scotland back up to 2nd in the pool medal table - Congratulations from all at Hearts. Result.
• Silver for Kirsty in the 200 Breaststroke breaking the British record for the second time today! - Congratulations from all at Hearts. Result.
• Eighth for Kris - fantastic achievement in his first Games. Congratulations from all at Hearts. Gregor and Kirsty are back for the 100's and Kris will be back on the 21st. Result.

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.

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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.

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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.

2004 Olympic Round Up

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.

Summer 2003 News

Highlights from the 2003 Nationals at Tollcross

Website Launch competition results

East District Age Group Championships III May 3rd/4th 2003 More

City Of Edinburgh International Meet
April 12/13th 2003, Royal Commonwealth Pool (50m) More

Louise Pate - 32nd Speedo W-I-S-E Schools International and Scottish National
Youth Squad. More

Louise's big splash is also in the "News" !

Youngsters are not all washed up. Did you see the article in the Evening News in
which the Club responded to the appointment of a Fitness Tsar?

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ASA and Scottish Nationals - 2005 - Highlights

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.

Masters Hall of Fame Honour

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.

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2004 Christmas Fun Day

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 )

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Commonwealth Youth Games

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

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!" Louise ''What?'' 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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Commonwealth Youth Games - News Release

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.

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Olympic round-up: Hearts had two of its members at the Olympic Games in Athens and both qualified for finals;

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.

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.

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).

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!

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ASA and Scottish Nationals - 2004 - Highlights

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.

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Intermediate Leagues Results for Round 1, February 2004

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

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East-District Age Group Championships - February 7/8th Round 1 report.

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.

2003 CLUB CHRISTMAS FUN DAY

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.

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Recent Meet Reports - December - Jan 2004

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Summer News

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!

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Daily Highlights from Tollcross

Day 1 - Wed 18th - Louise is Fly-ing again!

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.

Day 2 - Thu 19th - Vivienne flys the flag today.

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.

Day 3 - Fri 20th - Hearts swimmers up against the big guns today.

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.

Day 4 - Sat 21st - Our CES swimmers are going well today.

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.

Our senior swimmers had it tough again today as they competed against the likes of Alison Sheppard, Karen Pickering, Mark Foster and James Hickman.

Day 5 - Sun 22nd - mens/womens events and loads of exciting relays.

Our swimmers were once again competing against some of Britain's best swimmers, it really was a quality field today.

Carol Thain finished 7th in the women's 800m Free (HDW - result).

In the relays, top 8 finishes included the 13/14 girls in the 4x50m Medley Relay (6th) and the women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay team (7th).

Of our CES swimmers, Gregor Tait finished 4th in the 200m IM, Kirsty Balfour took Gold in the 200m Breast with Haley Preston finishing 7th. They were joined by Hearts/CES team-mates Kris Gilchrist who finished 5th in the 200m Breast Final and John Owen who was 4th in the men's 1500m Freestyle.

Well done to all the Hearts swimmers who have taken part in these 5 days of competition. It looked tough sitting here just watching the results come in!

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www.swimhearts.com was officially launched on Sunday 1st June.

To celebrate the launch of www.swimhearts.com, Hearts offered Club Members the opportunity to win prizes worth £115 - featuring £100 worth of prizes kindly donated by the Edinburgh Evening News and £15 from SwimTec (Heartrate UK). The draw was made at the Club Day,

and the winners were;

• First Prize - £50 - Paul Maxwell - 4 Training
• Second Prize - £30 - Rachel Spencer - JAG 2
• Third Prize - £20 - Gemma Wimberley - 3 Silver
• Fourth Prize - £15 - Martin Prentice - 3 Silver

Congratulations to all these winners, and thanks to them and everyone else who entered for taking part in the competition.

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Lethal Louise

32nd Speedo W-I-S-E Schools International
New Ross, Ireland- 22nd March 2003

A 14 year old Group 1 Elite swimmer has put Scottish swimming on the map by storming to victory at a prestigious international gala. Louise Pate's astonishing 100 metres butterfly swim of 1:04.44 at the 32nd Speedo WISE Schools Swimming International held in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland was widely acclaimed as the 'swim of the meet'.

Craigmount High School pupil Louise set a new meet record time and slashed a massive 2.64 seconds off her previous short course personal best time. Louise's performance was a mere 0.71 seconds outside of the Scottish Junior Record time set by Shona Smart in 1987 - a time that Louise still has until the end of 2004 to achieve. The amazing display earned her the Scottish Female Swimmer of the Meet Award.

Phil Potter, Head Coach of Hearts and Group 1 Elite, with which Louise trains and competes alongside a host of promising young swimmers, praised the performance of his young star. Phil commented: "This was a really top class age group performance from a very talented individual. Louise has worked very hard in order to succeed in her sport and has now produced a swim that highlights the immense potential she has. She did her club and her country proud."

Pointing to a training regime that currently involves 15 hours of training time and a total volume of 35-40 kilometres covered in the pool per week, Phil added: "The ultimate aim is to help Louise and her many gifted team-mates develop into senior swimmers capable of competing at the very highest level. To do this we need to look at gradually increasing her training commitment and capability over the coming months and years. There is an awful lot of talent that is being wasted in this country - Louise and her friends are in the right place to develop it."

Louise also formed part of the Junior Girls 4x50 metre Medley Relay team that finished as runners up and in doing so helped the Scottish Schools team to a very creditable overall 2nd place in the competition. The team finished just 15 points behind England and were awarded the F.G. Uglow trophy for being the Most Improved Nation for the second year running - an indication of the resurgent strength of Scottish swimming.

And ....

LOUISE LEAPS ONTO YOUTH SQUAD!

14 year old Louise Pate has been rewarded for an excellent season by gaining selection onto the Scottish National Youth Squad for 2003/04.

Her selection sees the Group 1 Elite swimmer meet up with the best young talent in the country for special training opportunities throughout the season and her progress will be monitored weekly by the National Youth Coach.

Many congratulations from all at Hearts to Louise on achieving this prestigious selection and we all hope it will prove to be a stepping stone to even greater things in the future.

Click here for more information on Scottish Elite Swimming programmes

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City Of Edinburgh International Meet
April 12/13th 2003, Royal Commonwealth Pool (50m)

Edinburgh's Royal Commonwealth Pool showed itself to be up to the job of hosting high quality swim meets as many of Scotland's top age group swimmers descended on the capital for this event run by 'City of Edinburgh Swimming'.
14 year old Louise Pate again took top billing for the club when scooping Hearts' only Gold of the weekend - marginally improving her own East District record for the 100 Butterfly with 1.06.23. Louise had earlier swam an ill judged 200 Butterfly (2.27.35) and had to be content with the Silver medal.
Getting amongst the medals in the 17 + Girls section were Catherine Garner and Carol Thain. The former picked up Silver in both of her backstroke events (1.11.18 and 2.31.07) and Bronze in her 100 Free (1.03.24) and 200 Free (2.16.99). Carol finished just ahead of Catherine in the 200 Free (2.16.09), just behind in the 200 Back (2.31.50) and also picked up a Silver medal in the 100 Breast (1.21.74).
Joining her team-mates on the medal trail was Hannah Rutherford who finished 3rd in the 15/16 200 Backstroke (2.30.64) and also posted encouraging performances in the finals of the 100 Back and Fly.
Although finishing just outside of the medals, Vivienne Fleming posted impressive performances in the 15/16 100 and 200 Breaststroke events (1.19.32 and 2.50.86) and edged ever closer to much coveted ASA National Youth qualifying times.
Well done to everyone who took part in a successful, well run, enjoyable meet!

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