The Scottish National Short Course Championships, held recently at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, saw a huge medal haul and some outstanding personal performances for Aberdeen Sports Village based swimmers.
The squad from the City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST) who are based at the Sports Village’s Aquatics Centre, came home with a total of ten medals, nine of them gold.
The event’s outstanding performer was Kirsty Simpson, who took a clean sweep of backstroke titles (50m, 100m and 200m), putting in lifetime best performances in all three events. She also scooped bronze in the 50m butterfly.
Kirsty’s performance is all the more impressive following a challenging 2014-15 season that saw her performances suffer as she adjusted to a new life as a student in Aberdeen. In fact, she was on the brink of quitting the sport in August after having her Scottish Swimming funding withdrawn, but ultimately this has only galvanised her to work harder than ever and results are now reflecting that effort.
COAST Interim Head Coach, Gregor McMillan, said “I’m absolutely delighted with the performance of the squad in Edinburgh, and am particularly proud of the way Kirsty has turned around her fortunes in the last few months. However, the work doesn’t stop here and we need to take these positive results and keep driving forward towards the upcoming Olympic trials.”
Other individual gold medals went to Caroline McIntosh (junior 100m backstroke), Finlay Deans (junior 200m backstroke) and Jessica Thomson (junior 800m freestyle).
The squad’s relay teams also saw golden success with the boys team of Finlay Deans, Daniel McNally, Jack Watson, and Louis Houette pick up both the junior 4x50m and 4x100m freestyle titles, while the girls team of Caitlin Davies, Caroline McIntosh, Yasmin Perry, and Alice Alcaras scooped the junior 4x50 freestyle crown in a Scottish junior record time.
Duncan Sinclair, Chief Executive of ASV, added “it’s fantastic to see so many great performances from these young athletes who are benefitting from training in a world class environment, and it’s testament to the efforts of the team at ASV and the support they provide to these athletes on a daily basis. “