Story
Index
2008
COGST LONG COURSE OPEN AGE GROUP MEET 3rd
– 4th MAY -
TOLLCROSS PARK LEISURE CENTRE
Well
day one and Team Garioch consisted of: -
Joseph
Miley,
Thomas Holmes, William Walker, Alastair
Miley, Jonas Whitehead, Katherine Wood,
Hannah Craig, Orla Adams, Andrew Bryce,
David Smith, Michael Smith, Sarah Smith,
Phoebe Whitehead
Were ready to do the business at Tollcross.
It was also great to see some relative
newcomers to the Long Course event –
Katherine (Katie) Wood, Thomas Holmes,
Joseph Miley and Hannah Craig. The team had
a great spirit and this soon showed with
PB’s again being broken at a rate of knots
as well as a total of 3 Medallists on day
one gaining 6 medals between them.
Medallists Session 1 Day 1
Orla Adams 100m Breast Stroke – GOLD
Jonas Whitehead 100m Breast Stroke – SILVER
Andrew Bryce 100m Free – GOLD
Andrew Bryce 200IM - SILVER
Jonas Whitehead 200IM – BRONZE
Medallists Session 2 Day 1
Andrew Brice 200m Free – SILVER
After a great Day one could this be matched
on Day 2? The short answer is yes as PB’s
still continued to be broken and as in day 1
there were a great performances from the
newcomers to the Long Course scene. There
were 4 medallists on day 2 gaining 4 medals
between them.
Medallists Session 1 Day 2
Andrew Bryce 400 Free - SILVER
Medallists Session 2 Day 2
Orla Adams 200m Breast – BRONZE
Andrew Bryce 200m Breast – SILVER
William Walker 100m Back – BRONZE
Overall another good show by the GARIOCH
team
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scottish National Age Group
Championships 10-13.04.08
Girls Relay Team - Glod Medallist's & Scottish Age Group Relay Champions
Tollcross-
again (so soon?) and Team Garioch - Orla
Adams, Andrew Bryce, Hannah Craig (her very
first SNAGs conpetition!), Emily Jones,
Rosie Maddock, Alistair Miley, Nicole
Petursdottir, Greig Rennie, David Smith,
Michael Smith, William Walker, Jonas
Whitehead and Phoebe Whitehead - arrived
still buzzing with the excitement of Hannah
Miley’s outstanding performances at the
British Championships and her confirmed
place in the GB Swim Team for Beijing, maybe
just a little apprehensive about living up
to the standard set by Hannah. They needn’t
have worried.
Day 1 – News
from the previous evening indicated that
‘Magic Miley’ was about to continue her
dazzling rise through the swimming world
rankings at the FINA World Championships in
Manchester and the Garioch SNAGs Team also
set about doing the club and themselves
proud.
There were good solid swims and LC pb’s all
round with Orla, Emily, David and Andrew all
making finals. Emily took second place and
National Age Group title in the 10-12 yrs
100m Breaststroke and 200m IM, first place
and Open Age Group title in the 400m
Freestyle. Orla came first and took the 13
yrs Open Age Group title in the 100m
Breaststroke. Andrew just missed out on the
medals in the 10-12yrs 100m and 1500m
Freestyle The 11-14 yrs boys relay team
(Andrew, William, Alistair & Greig) finished
the day with a gutsy performance in the 4 x
200m Freestyle relay.
Day 2 –More
pbs from everyone and finals from Emily,
Orla, Andrew and Alistair. Orla took the
gold medal (and the Open Age Group title) in
the 13yrs 200m Breaststroke, Emily took
silver and the National title in 10-12yrs
200 Breaststroke and 800m Freestyle, gold
and Open title in the 200m Freestyle. This
time Alistair just missed out on the medals
in the Boys 13 yrs 200m Backstroke (stop
biting your fingernails, Alistair!)
But
the best was yet to come. The boys relay
team came in a very creditable 9 seconds
below their entry time in the 4 x 100
Freestyle relay then the Garioch 10-13 yrs
Girls relay team (Emily, Orla, Nicole &
Phoebe) approached the starting blocks on a
mission! They swam in the 2nd
heat of the 4 x 100m Medley relay and came
home in 4:56.16. The wait for the result of
the 3rd heat was agonising and
even at the end of the heat Garioch’s place
wasn’t clear because the 10-13 yrs and 14-17
yrs relays were mixed in the same event but
the official result confirmed that Garioch’s
Golden Girls had done it again taking the
silver medal behind the Portsmouth team. The
girls were jubilant on the podium but there
was another surprise in store for them – as
the highest-ranking Scottish club they were
the National Age Group Champions and also
received gold medals!
Day 3 - Gitte
was in sparkling form for the team talk at
breakfast though some of her remarks were
for the benefit of other swimmers staying at
the Red Deer (“OK guys, taper has finished
so you don’t have to hold yourself back
anymore…..”). Yet more pb’s, finals swims
for Orla, Andrew, Emily, Nicole, Alistair,
Greig, Jonas and Michael, gold for Emily in
the 10-12 yrs 100m Freestyle, silver in the
1500m Freestyle, bronze for Greig in the
100m Breaststroke and, for good measure,
Phoebe achieved an ASA qualifying time in
the 1500m.
The
boys’ relay team were having a night off but
the girls’ campaign continued with the 4 x
200m Freestyle. This time the team didn’t
need to wait for the official result - they
just watched for Jenny G jumping out of her
seat with excitement because she’d already
worked it out! The girls had pulled it off
again Scottish National Age Group
Champions!- 10 seconds under their entry
time, and second behind Portsmouth.
Not
even a drained car battery and having to
wait for the man from the AA could dampen
Gitte’s spirits after that!
Day 4 – The
last day of a long competition but the
Garioch team was still buzzing. Not only had
the team at the SNAGs had a great
competition so far but Hannah was swimming
brilliantly in Manchester and we had just
heard that Patrick was to be a member of the
GB Swimming Coaching Team for the Beijing
Olympics! Fantastic!!
The
swimmers continued in style with even more
pbs, finals for Andrew, Emily, Rosie (her
first at SNAG’s!!), Greig & Jonas with
silver for Emily in the 400 IM. (Greig had
obviously forgotten that he wasn’t tapering
any more in the heats of the 200m
Breaststroke but he made up for that by
slicing 11.5 seconds off his heats time in
the finals to finish a very close 5th)
Both
relay teams were in action again. The girls
finished the competition with a blistering
4:20.63 in the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay
taking the silver medal behind (you’ve
guessed it) Portsmouth who were less than
half a second faster!
So a
clean sweep for the girls as Scottish
National Age Group Champions in all three
relays. The boys saved their best relay
performance for last, finishing in 9th
place (and in the points) in a time of
4:54.21 for the 4 x 100m Medley relay. Well
done boys and all I’ll say at this point is
that a year can make a huge difference!
Overall, it was a great competition for
Garioch. Despite very early starts and late
finishes every day, all the swimmers enjoyed
the SNAGs immensely.
Total medal haul was:
Individual 5 Gold 6
Silver 1 Bronze
Relay Team 3 Silver
Open
Age Group Champion in 5 Individual events
National Age Group Champion in 6 individual
and 3 relay events.
28
Finals plus points placings in 15 distance
events.
9
North District records (subject to
ratification, of course)
50
(Yes 50!) Club records.
Well
done, everyone, and a big “Thank you!” to
Gitte and her team of poolside support
staff, Jenny Garnham, Anne Smith, Kevin
Jones, Petur Petursson, Manivanh Bryce and
Graham Walker (we thoroughly enjoyed your
imaginative new pacing signals, Graham!)
Thanks also to all those who helped in so
many ways to make this a meet to remember.
And
thank you to all those wonderful youngsters
who made up Team Garioch for SNAGs 2008.
Many people from other clubs noticed and
praised your happy, positive attitude,
fantastic support of each other and, of
course, great swimming.
We
are all so proud of you.
See
you all back at Tollcross for the Nationals
Open. Bring it on!!!
Helen
S WIM
TOUGH – SWIM FAST IN THE HIGHLAND CAPITOL
Girls Relay Team
Funny how in life sometimes things can be
deceptive! This years district age groups
saw Garioch take a team of 20 up to the
Highland capitol but it sure felt like we
had twice as many, why one might ask, the
simple reason being the swimmers were
achieving high volumes and high strike rates
into finals.
Inverness was a two day meet and the
majority of the team descended upon the
local hotel on Nessies doorstep throughout
Friday afternoon and into the night to be
greeted by Italian hotel owner Basil, no I
mean Manuel oops sorry Alberto for a bit of
friendly banter and for those of us of more
advanced years a pint or two of medicinal
extra cold to wipe away the weeks woes and
herald in the new era.
Up
for a bright and breezy breakfast, took a
walk at 5:30 and engaged the workmen on the
bridge to the pool in conversation to
discover oops its closed this weekend and a
three mile diversion needed to drive so good
excuse for the athletes to walk to the
water, turned out to be good for the
performance.
Into
the pool and quite fresh but we all know
that’ll change. After last years dehydration
here I was on 6 to 8 litres of water a day
and it works no headaches.
I
guess I’ll be boring here and just tabulate
the achievements as there were just so many
this weekend:-
Garioch Swimmers Achieved
32
(thirty two) Individual Gold medals
4
(four) Individual Silver medals
6
(six) Individual Bronze medals
3
(three) Relay Gold medals
2
(two) Relay Silver medals
1
(one) Relay Bronze medal
Broken down as:-
Orla
2 Gold
Andrew 8 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze
Emily 13 (thirteen) Gold!!!!!!!! Lucky for
some....
Hannah 7 Gold
Greig 2 Bronze
Michael S 1 Gold, 1 Silver
William 1 Bronze
Jonas 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
Phoebe 1 Bronze
Added to:-
27
club records
12 district records
6 age group national records and
3 senior national records
Of
particular note across the weekend the usual
team camaraderie and pulling together, just
great to top off on the Sunday night with a
sterling swim to silver for the boys relay
just after Hannah lowered the Scottish
National 200IM record (again!!) and of
course Hannah and Orla meeting the
“challenge” in their individual age groups
to break the oldest respective district age
group records.
Can
I sign of without paying tribute to Emily,
13 Gold medals plus two more Golds in the
relays for a grand total of 15, now if only
they still minted those medals in 24 carat
Kev could retire at once and live a life of
luxury on the costas, hohum, keep it up…
On On
2008 Medley Challenge
Scottish National
Short Course Open – Tollcross
200 7
Successful Club Championships!
Aberdeen Dolphin Mitchell
Trophy – 10/11/07
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2008 Medley Challenge
- Northfield Pool 19-01-08
Another year another venue but
still the same well organized meet from our friends at
Aberdeen ASC. This year we were taking 17 swimmers up to
the tropic of Northfield for another aqua adventure.
Team Garioch for the day:-
Lois MILNE, Aimee WRIGHT, Peter HOLMES, Thomas HOLMES,
Beth McINTOSH, Rachel BINNIE, Andrew BRYCE, William
WALKER, Orla ADAMS, Sarah SMITH, Cat FREEMAN, Hannah
CRAIG, Molly CARLIER, Imogen JONES, Phoebe WHITEHEAD,
Michael FREEMAN and David SMITH.
So we arrived early Saturday
morning, still dark but the light was shining of the two
trophies we were bringing with us from last years
exploits at Bon Accord. Oh to have that or a similar
location back again for swimming in Aberdeen…. Fly was
the first course on the days menu and superb swims and
almost unanimous PBs were the dish being served by the
boys n girls in blue. Invariably winning heats this was
good swimming folks. On to the backstroke and more of
the same so an early lunch was in order. A quick snack
and back for the attack. Breastroke and frontcrawl and
true to form Orla throws in another Scottish age group
record swim in the 100 breast.
So what finalists are we going to
have in session 3, well done to Aimee Wright for making
the 10-11 year old female final, Orla and Phoebs were
due to duel in the girls 12-13 final, Drew Bryce was to
represent the boys in the same age group. With David and
Mikey rounding it of in the boys 14-15 age group it was
going to be a short but busy session.
Aimee up first and a spirited swim
into a great fourth place. Next Orla and Phoebs and
Phoebe knew she’d need a good lead coming into the
breastroke. Strong swimming from both the girls meant
Phoebe had 5 metres after the back and Orla took this
back in the first 25 and turned it into her 5m advantage
in the second holding on to 4 of that through the free
to result in Gold for Orla Silver for Phoebs. Straight
into Andrews swim our 12 year old amongst 13s but Drew
lead from start to finish to take the title. Last but
not least David and Mikey up to the blocks with
Westhills Ross Leslie between them seeded 1 into the
final. David wasn’t going to let that go and stormed of
into a 6 metre lead over Mikey in the fly which he
maintained to the finish for another Garioch 1, 2.
And up for the finale the cannon
relay. All swimmers involved and the parents now in for
the cheering, Garioch A set off with Lois and Peter the
10 year old swimmers and the comment came it’s not fair
the others are bigger, just wait your turn our bigger
guns are still to fire. Banchory lead the way throughout
but were on a time only with older athletes so it was
down to Garioch Aberdeen. With strong breastroke from
Orla and Mikey we were on terms with our ace cards of
the Smiths pulling through the fly leg to hand over a
tidy lead to Phoebs and Drew to clean up for a relay
trophy winning team performance.
Best supported club, yes once again
Garioch, much more difficult here at Northfield but the
unity of the swimmers and their continued support for
each other was recognised so once again well done all.
Thanks also to all the support team, poolside Ken Gitte
and Anne and all the parents who officiated in white……On
On………..
Scottish National Short Course Open – Tollcross
Team Garioch – Rachael Adam, Orla Adams, Andrew Bryce,
Emily Jones, Rosie Maddock, Hannah Miley, Alastair Miley,
Nicole Petursdottir, Sarah Rennie, Greig Rennie, David
Smith, Michael Smith, Emma Weir, Jonas Whitehead, Phoebe
Whitehead.
Day 1
We all arrived at 7am with the weather being cold and
miserable, but Team Garioch was upbeat and ready for the
day’s events. The competition started off with the Mens
50m Freestyle where Jonas Whitehead put in a good
performance. Next to follow was the Womens 100m
Breaststroke where both Orla Adams and Emily Jones
qualified for the B Final. There were strong
performances all the way through with Jonas Whitehead
and Michael Smith also making the B final in the 50m
Breast Stroke and Hannah Miley making the 200IM & 200Fly
A Final.
The afternoon session saw some strong performances by
the younger swimmers in the Youths Distance Swims
The evening was capped off by Helen’s excellent cooking
and food preparation for the swimmers and staff which we
all enjoyed before going to bed after quite a long 1st
day.
Hannah Miley 200IM & 200FLY A Final - Gold and Scottish
records in both!
Jonas Whitehead 100IM B Final
Michael Smith & Jonas Whitehead 50m BR
Orla Adams & Emily Jones 100BR B Final – Scottish Age
Group record for Orla
Day 2
Icy cold morning (-7!) and everyone was up a bright eyed
a bushy tailed with the exception of Patrick who quite
sick over night and eventually saw reason and stayed
behind while we all shot off to the Pool. The funny
thing about it was that Hannah wears ear plugs as
Patrick has a tendency to snore so both Hannah and
Alistair had a great night’s sleep not knowing that
Patrick was being sick through the night.
Session 1 started slow but steady with good solid swims
all round including A Final performances from Hannah (we
expect nothing less!), a blinder of a 200 Fly swim from
Alastair and B final performances from Jonas and Orla.
For us less young than others memory tends to lapse and
sometimes we go into a world of our own of which in this
case Petur succumbed to. In Petur’s world all was fine
as he made his way to the loo but as he sat down he
began to panic did I just come into the women’s loo?? Oh
no what will I do? Petur contemplated what he should do
and planned his immaculate escape and had an alibi if he
was caught. Anyway, needless to say, he escaped the area
unscathed but.,…….
This was not to be Petur’s day as three female swimmers
were walking just arms length away from him when one of
the three girls who were slightly set back to the other
two pinched the bum of her friend. Her friend turned to
her and asked “Was that you?” “No.” said her friend!
Then Petur got the most disgusted stare. Petur was
dumbstruck and in disbelief of what had just happened.
Session 5 saw more good solid swims in the Youths by
Orla, Andrew, Emily, Rosie, Nicole, Greig, David &
Phoebe and with several Silver Squad times achieved.
Patrick arrived at the end of session 5, having
discarded his ‘living dead’ look and feeling a lot
better, in time to see watch cracking A & B Finals.
Jonas Whitehead 100BR B Final
Hannah Miley 200BK - Gold, 100IM – Silver & 400FR – Gold
and Scottish Record
Orla Adams 50BR B Final – Scottish Age Group Record for
Orla
Day 3
Still full of high spirits the team met up for breakfast
and had the normal Briefing from Patrick. As like the
previous days the swimmers put in some great
performances an all in all swam exceptionally well.
David had been filming all the swimmers race’s since Day
1 and by now, where some people suffer from RSI get
Tennis Elbow, he was suffering with Camcorder Wrist.
However Patrick came to the rescue and let him off his
tripod which made life filming a lot easier.
After lunch on day 3 Gitte arrived back thinking she
could sneak back in without being seen. Unfortunately,
this was not the case as unknown to her she had stepped
into some mud and had left a muddy footprint trail all
along poolside which was kindly pointed out by one of
those lovely poolside attendants! Oooooppps!
Hannah Miley 400IM Gold, 200FR Silver & Scottish
Champion, 200BR - Bronze
Rachael Adam 400 IM B Final
Orla Adams 200BR B Final & Scottish Age Group Record
Michael Smith & Jonas Whitehead 200BR B Final
Rachel Adam 400IM B-final
Paisley 500 Trophy (best overall performance):
Hannah Miley – Garioch
Aberdeen 200 Trophies (best single performance male and
female):
Female: Hannah Miley – Garioch (400m IM)
So overall a total Team Garioch haul of 5 Gold, 2
Silver, 1 Bronze, 2 Trophies, 3 Scottish Senior Records
(all Hannah’s!), 2 Scottish Age group records, 11 B
Finals and stack of PB’s.
Congratulations to all the swimmers who gained Silver
Squad times at this meet -
Orla Adams, Andrew Bryce, Emily Jones, Andrew Bryce,
Greig Rennie and Phoebe Whitehead.
All in all a great three days of swimming and once again
a big ‘Thank You!’ goes out to all the Staff and Parents
who all helped to make this event tick along so
smoothly. As Patrick was told by several people, it was
nice to see a team of swimmers happy, supportive and
full of joy which is great to hear.
Well done, everyone! Onward and Upward!
Successful Club Championships!
Inverness
District Meet Report 8/9 December 2007
Once
more unto the breech dear friends as a weekend in Inverness looms again.
Trepidation at the thought of driving home Sunday night, will it be snowing,
icy winds we’ll have to wait and see. How wrong could I be, it was to be a
delight. Fuelled by the adrenalin from the swimmers race weekend we were
destined to fly…….
The Garioch
team all were all fired up and ready to race,
Our heroes
for the weekend were the Garioch team of :-
THE GIRLS:-
Emily, Orla, Imogen, Megan, Nicole, Lorna and Phoebs
The BOYS:-
Andrew B, Joseph, Martyn, Andrew T, Ali, David, Greig and Thomas.
Some stunning
swims and quite a few records, at last count around a dozen club and three
each of district and national, nae bad, Garioch swimmers in all 200IM finals
on Sunday night mreant it was to be an exciting finale.
A big thanks
to Carmel for marshalling all sessions, special thanks to Peter and Ken for
putting up with Carmel and yours truly for the whole weekends swimming.
How about a
bit of cream on the cake, Gin for the tonic, prawns for the toast?????, to
transform a good weekend into a great one, our senior swimmer Hannah
providing just that. In Eindhoven she provided the ideal finish with yet
another lowering of her own 400IM British and Scottish record. We all felt
really proud when it was announced in Inverness.
GITTE
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