Published: Thursday, 12th March, 2009 7:45am

Dalgety Bay girl named Scottish Junior Swimmer of the Year

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A RESURGENT Lucy Ellis, the Dalgety Bay swimmer who had to sit out the last two months of last season with a back injury, has been rewarded for an excellent 2008 season by being named the Scottish Junior Swimmer of the Year.

It had been the best season for Ellis but it had the worst possible ending.

In the British and Olympic trials at Sheffield she was the fastest 100 metres freestyle swimmer with a 1992/93 birth date.

At the same event she broke the 100m long course age group and junior records with a time of 57.85 seconds.

In the summer at the European Junior Championship in Serbia she reached the 100m freestyle final after setting a new Scottish junior and age group record of 57.11.

And in October she was part of a select group of swimmers competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India where, in spite of hurting her back, she finalled in all of her events.

But injuries kept her out of training for two months, which she found really frustrating.

'When I started back this year I couldn"t see myself getting back to full fitness because I felt awful in the water and I couldn"t do anything near to what I used to do,' Ellis said.

'But after a month of training I began to feel better in the water.

"There"s a lot of support at the ITC (British Swimming Intensive Training Centre at Stirling University) where I began to train at the start of this year.

"They have helped to build me up with physio and strength and conditioning training. I have also had a lot of support from the East of Scotland Institute of Sport.'

Lucy admits her training regime is far harder under her new coach, Rob Greenwood.

'It"s tougher but it"s really good,' she said.

'They are good at supporting me, especially when you are finding it tough in training.

"They help motivate you to want to do it and I feel like I try a lot harder than I ever have before.

'I"m at Stirling twice a day five days a week. I get two mornings off and we get the whole of Sunday off.'

Lucy is a member of British Swimming"s 2012 target Squad and is currently on the world-class development programme.

Now almost back to full fitness she is just a fortnight away from the British trials in Sheffield.

'That is the selection event for the European Juniors Championships,' she said.

"That"s the main aim for this year. I"ll be focusing on the 200m freestyle this year.

"Since I"ve got back I"ve done a lot of distance work to get my endurance back.'

And with injuries hopefully behind her, Scottish Swimming"s Junior Swimmer of the Year award is a fitting acknowledgment of her steely resolve.

'I was quite surprised because there are lots of juniors in Scottish swimming that did really well last year,' she said. 'But it"s great to win'