Swimming: Jamie is a golden boy

May 21 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

SWIM West Lothian member Jamie Coulter made a real splash at the recent Scottish Gas National Age Group Championships at Edinburgh's Royal Commonwealth Pool.

The competition, specifically for swimmers between 10 and 18-years-old held over four days is a major event in the swimming calendar attracting teams from all over Britain.

But this was county star Coulter’s opportunity to shine as he decimated the opposition.

Day one saw him take gold in the 200m freestyle with an impressive personal-best time of 1:57:55 some four seconds in front of nearest rival Joe Lipworth from Dundee.

His impressive form continued in day two as he picked up his second gold in the 100m butterfly, just outside the illusive one minute, another PB of 1:00:08 again pushing Lipworth into silver.

Jamie was unluckily touched out into fourth place in the 800m freestyle by less than two tenths of a second but this only gave him the drive to take an impressive third gold in the 400m freestyle.

Gold number four came with a blistering 200m butterfly taking some six seconds off his previous PB to go 2:12:25 in a tight and exciting final.

A relaxed swim in the final of the 200m IM proved only to be a warm-up for the Blue Ribbon event, the 100m freestyle. A PB in the heat set him up perfectly in lane three for a fantastic finale to his weekend taking gold number five.