Published: Thursday, 28th August, 2008 2:50pm

Dalgety Bay swimmer picked for Commonwealth Youth Games

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DALGETY BAY teenager Lucy Ellis is one of 10 swimmers named in the 44-strong Scottish team for the third Commonwealth Youth Games, to be held in Pune, India, from 11th to 18th October.

'It feels great,' said 15-year-old Lucy. 'I wasn"t sure if I"d get picked because there were a lot of older swimmers trying to get in the team.

'It was hard to qualify because you had to make the times in certain competitions and I only had the European junior championships after I"d swum in a couple of the Scottish events, so it was all down to how I swam there.'

The European junior championships – staged in Belgrade, Serbia, last month – helped to produce Lucy"s best form of the year.

In the 100 metres freestyle event, her time of 57.11 seconds was a new Scottish junior record and Scottish age group record and was well inside the Commonwealth Youth Games time of 58.01 seconds. She finished eighth in the final despite suffering from a sore neck.

A member of Edinburgh"s Dunedin Swimming Club for the 2008 season, Lucy has made the twice daily trip across the Forth for training in the outdoor pool at Next Generation in Leith.

Combining a busy school schedule with 10 pool sessions, strength and conditioning training at the East of Scotland Institute of Sport and more time spent running, has contributed to her best season in the sport.

In the British and Olympic trials at Sheffield she was the fastest 100m freestyle swimmer with a 1992/93 birth date. She broke the 100m long course age group and junior records at the event in a time of 57.85 seconds.

At the Scottish national age group championships she set an age group and junior record in the 100m butterfly. Her 62.22 seconds time earned her first place in the British rankings for her age group.

Lucy will be heading south next month as she"s been awarded a sports scholarship to Kelly College Sports Academy in Devon.

'I"ll be starting there in two weeks and doing a sports course so I can fit in my swimming,' she said.

'They"ve got a pool on site so there will be no more travelling which has taken up most of my time.'

Then, just four weeks later, she will experience the thrill of competing in the multi-sport event of the Commonwealth Youth Games in India.

'I competed in the Youth Olympics last year but that was for GB and I"ve never had a Scottish cap in an event as big as this,' she said.

'It"s very competitive to get picked for the team so I"m really pleased to be going.'

All 71 Commonwealth countries will take part, with 351 medals to be won across nine sports, and Lucy will hope to progress to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2014 – in Glasgow – and the London Olympics of 2012.