Published: Thursday, 25th June, 2009 1:40pm

Six gold medals for Carnegie swimmer

Comments (0) | Print | Email

CARNEGIE Swimming Club won the top club award out of 31 clubs at the third annual InCAS distance swim meet at the Fife Institute, Glenrothes, at the weekend.

A large number of personal bests were achieved with the top performance going to 13-year-old Mark Szaranek (pictured in action), who won six gold medals in his age group.

He also established new meet records in all of these events with five of his swims creating new national age group records.

These were in the 200m butterfly, 400m individual medley, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle.

His performance in the 1500m freestyle earned him a huge round of applause from the spectators and competitors as he beat the previous record by a massive 21 seconds.

His team mates also performed very well in the 13-14 age group with Myles Hershaw creating several new personal best swims and picking up a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly, 200m and 400m freestyle.

Lewis Kirby made significant progress in a number of his events and was rewarded with a silver medal in the 200m backstroke, silver in the 200m butterfly and bronze in the 200m backstroke. Blair Hershaw improved a number of his swims, winning silver in the 200m breaststroke.

In the 11-12 age group there were notable performances from the boys. Jordan Lamb again showed his impressive recent form in the 200m backstroke, setting a new meet record on his way to winning gold. He also won bronze in the 200m freestyle.

In the 10 and under age group Greig Reid and Fraser Beeby highlighted their potential with very good performances. Greig won gold in the 400m freestyle. Fraser finished second in this event and also picked up gold in the 400m individual medley with silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 200m backstroke.

The girls were not to be outdone. In the 13-14 years age group Ellie Brisbane won gold in the 200m backstroke, establishing a new meet record. Ellie also won medals in the 200m individual medley (silver), 200m freestyle (bronze).

Caitlin Burns managed to achieve six new personal best times in just three events and was rewarded with a bronze medal in the 800m free.

Shannon Clark won gold in the 200m breaststroke.

In the 11-12 years age group Zoe Mitchell produced some excellent swims, winning a gold in the 200m backstroke and 200m breaststroke (silver, 400m freestyle (silver), 200m freestyle (silver) and 200m individual medley (bronze).

Sally Christie in the 10 and under age group, had great swims, winning gold in the 200m breaststroke and the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke.

Brooke Gillies took silver in the 200m breaststroke.

Host club InCAS also had an excellent weekend, winning six golds, seven silvers and two bronze medals. They also had 24 finalists and set five meet records.

Top InCAS swimmer was British age group finalist and Scottish Schools internationalist Rachel O"Donnell (12) with five swims, five golds and five meet records.

Her swims were in the 200m breaststroke in 2:48.75, 200m fly (2:29.22), 200m free (2:10.40), 200m IM (2:27.38) and 400m free (4:39.56) earning her the top 12-year-old female award.

The girls" 10 and under age group saw Tain Bruce have an outstanding weekend with one gold, six silvers and six personal bests. Her gold came in the 200m IM in 2:51.82, a massive PB, while her silvers came in the 200m backcrawl in 2:51.23, 200m fly in 2:58.08, 200m free (2:33.26), 400m IM (6:02.78), 400m free (5:26.18) and the 800m free in 11:11.53.

The same age group saw nine-year-old Lauren Pirouet win a superb bronze in the 800m free in 12:31.09.

The boys" 10 and under age group saw Scott Wilson win a bronze in the 200m breaststroke in 3:43.82.

The girls" 13/14yrs age group saw 13-year-old Chelsea Lawson have an excellent weekend with a superb silver in the 400m IM, knocking 16 seconds from her previous best in 5:18.99 and was just two tenths of a second from the gold.

l Seven young swimmers from Carnegie"s development and junior performance squads took part in the Aquanauts Livingston ASC 8th annual graded meet held at Prestonpans on Saturday.

Swimming in longer distance events of 400m freestyle and 200m breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and individual medley, many of them for the very first time in competition, the swimmers produced some outstanding performances, with all clocking personal best times.

Among some of the stand-out performances was Fraser Beeby who won a silver medal in the 400m free and bronze in the 200m breast. Hamish Neil won a silver in the 200m IM.

Junior performance swimmer Katie Johnstone, competing in the 13-14 age group, won gold in the 400m freestyle.