Swimming: Aquanauts Livingston are the Best Club winners

Jul 2 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

AQUANAUTS Livingston held its annual graded meet recently and for the first time ever, managed to lift its own Best Club Trophy.

The meet, aimed to give younger and inexperienced swimmers the opportunity to compete at longer distances, was held at Prestonpans new venue the Mercat Gait Leisure Centre.

The first event, 400m freestyle, saw a number of the Aquanauts swimmers give the 16-length race a try for the first time.

James Melville (10) and Duncan Kuwall (11) showing that their training was paying off as they both completed it with some ease.

Sarah Donnelly’s first 400m saw her swim fantastically only to finish just outside the medals in fourth place.

Two other swimmers who had competed at this distance before showed that practice does make perfect as Sarah Veale posted a one min 30 second personal best and Erin Rafferty knocked 22 seconds off her previous time to lift her first gold medal of the day.

In the 13-14 age group Dean Strachan lifted silver with Martin Bothwick just missing out and finishing fourth. Christopher Aitchison secured bronze in the boys 15 years and over.

The 200m breaststroke saw Erin Rafferty lift her second gold medal of the day with Sarah Donnelly gaining bronze.

In the 13-14 age group Emma Calvert continued recent good form to lift the silver.

For the boys in the backstroke Fraser Gill secured gold in the 11-12 age group with Martin Bothwick and Gregor Dippie gaining silver and bronze respectively.

In the 15 and over age group Aquanauts lifted all the silverware with a first, second and third for Andrew Melville, Daniel McCart and Christopher Aitchison.

A hard morning’s work was rounded off when Sarah Donnelly lifted gold in the 200m and Fraser, Gregor and Andrew likewise in their category for the 200m butterfly.

Another 400m freestyle gave Aquanauts another one, two, three as Ashley McAdam, Keri Greig and Cara Donnelly dominated the podium with Emma Calvert picking up silver number two in the 13-14 age group.

Craig McLean’s meet got off to a good start when he lifted silver for the 200m breaststroke quickly followed by a ‘too fast’ swim in the individual medley event.

Continuing with the 200m breaststroke, Gregor and Fraser returned to the podium for silver and bronze medals.

In the 200m individual medley, again Aquanauts swimmers shone as medals for Dean, Gregor, Daniel and Andrew were secured.

The club’s third full house in the 200m butterfly gave Zoey McAdam, Sarah Veale and Sarah Donnelly the medals with a ‘too fast’ certificate going to Erin Rafferty.

Shona Mackie lifted her second medal of the day with Cara swimming too fast in their age group in the same event.

Although medals and ‘too fast’ speeding tickets were in abundance the real excitement of the day was provided with thanks to Andrew Melville and Christopher Aitchison as they went head to head in the 200 breaststroke.

The noise poolside rose as they watched the lead change from length to length, stroke by stroke only subsiding when Andrew managed to touch out Christopher by 100th of a second.

A good day all round was finished when Aquanauts dominated the relay events and lifted both male and female prizes.