Scots take Top Team Accolade in Manchester

“With the combined junior and senior format of the meet it shows the strength in depth that we have in Scotland and I was really impressed by some of the younger swimmers and the maturity in their approach to a tough weekend of racing." Paul Wilson Disability Performance Development Manager

The British Gas Disability Open Short Course Championships took place last weekend (22^nd & 23^rd November) in Manchester’s Aquatics Centre and involved a wealth of talent including European, World and Paralympic Champions. Included within this were a number of Scottish athletes who have been seen representing GBR in various guises over the last season or two. On this occasion senior athletes were joined by junior swimmers to make up a formidable 39 strong Scottish team all looking to post some fast early season times in the short course format. And they did not disappoint! 

There were a number of notable performances over the weekend which included Danielle Joyce setting two new world record standards in the S15 classification for swimmers with a hearing impairment. Danii, who recent moved to Stirling University to train with Ben Higson & Steven Tigg, was reunited with former coach Sharon Welsh for the weekend. Along with World Records in the 100m Back (1:04.45) and 400m Free (4:33.60), Danii also set a new British Record in the 100m Fly in a time of 1:06.80. With the change in training programme Joyce didn’t know what to expect but was pleased with the way she swam: 

“I wasn't expecting that at all as I've had such a hard few weeks training in my new programme. I don't think I was meant to get personal bests here so I'm really happy!”

Joyce picked up the Youth Female Swimmer of the meet for her performances across the championships, a well-deserved award! In taking the Youth Male Swimmer of the meet, Conner Morrison made it a clean sweep of the age group for the Scottish team. Morrison of Garioch ASC had a number of PB’s over the meet and continues to mark himself up as one to watch for the future. 17 year old Morrison held his own against some of the world’s top S14 swimmers and had the opportunity to swim against the inform Jon Margeir Sverrisson from Iceland who set two World and three European records in the same classification. 

Also re-writing the record books was 18 year old Andrew Mullen who set new European standards in the S5 50m Back (38.88) and S5 50m Fly (38.37). Mullen, of REN96, was especially pleased considering he and coach Andy Jackson landed late on Friday from Brazil where he had been gaining valuable race experience. Mullen said: 

"It's been a great competition this weekend. I always look forward to racing short course. It was this meet that my swimming career really kicked off so to be able to come and put in some good performances is always a pleasure." 

In total the Scottish team set an impressive 3 World, 2 European, 3 British and 16 Scottish Records all contributing to victory in the overall team competition. This is the first time in 10 years that the Scottish team have brought the trophy back up the M6 and the team were rightly jubilant for the journey home despite the effort they had put in over the weekend. The trophy was collected on behalf of the team by Stefan Hoggan, the only member of the team who was in Sheffield ten years ago when Scotland last collected the trophy, and Hope Gordon. 

Scottish Swimming Disability Performance Development Manager Paul Wilson said: 

“With the combined junior and senior format of the meet it shows the strength in depth that we have in Scotland and I was really impressed by some of the younger swimmers and the maturity in their approach to a tough weekend of racing. We’ve been so close to winning the team championships over the last couple of years I’m pleased for the swimmers that this year they’ve managed to win it.” 

Full results available here:

http://www.swimmingresults.org.uk/disability/results/2014/bgods14/index.php 

World Records

Danielle Joyce – S15 400m Freestyle

Danielle Joyce – S15 100m Backstroke 

Scott Quin – S14 100m Breaststroke

European Records 

Andrew Mullen – S5 50m Backstroke

Andrew Mullen – S5 50m Butterfly 

British Records 

Danielle Joyce – S15 100m Butterfly

Jack McComish – S15 50m Freestyle 

Scottish Records 

Kayleigh Haggo – SB4 100m Breaststroke

Andrew Mullen – S5 50m Freestyle

Andrew Mullen – S5 100m Freestyle

Andrew Mullen – S5 200m Freestyle

Erraid Davies – SB9 100m Breaststroke

Beth Johnston – S10 100m Backstroke

Rosie Bancroft – S10 50m Freestyle

Rosie Bancroft – S10 100m Freestyle

Stephen Clegg – S13 50m Freestyle

Stephen Clegg – S13 100m Freestyle

Stephen Clegg – S13 100m Backstroke

Fraser Kane – S13 400m Freestyle

Fraser Kane – S13 100m Butterfly

Fraser Kane – SB13 100m Breaststroke

Reagan Doig – S14 200m Freestyle

Craig Rodgie – S14 100m Freestyle