Douglas Swimming Club finished as top club with 281 points at the third Lloyds TSB League Match at the NSC on Saturday evening.
Ramsey SC finished in second place on 213 points and Southern SC placed third on 131 points, this followed the same finishing order as the first two league matches. Leading swimmer for Douglas was 13-year-old Giselle Whitlam-Riley who raced to three first place finishes, two in her age and one open. The age group wins were for the 13 years 100m breast and 50m back with Giselle winning an open 100m free for the first time in a best time of 1:04.83 seconds.
Double event winners for Douglas were Rachel Ganley, Lizzie Ramsey and Matthew Quayle and Coady Foulis and Martin Diaz for Ramsey. Rachel took the 14 yrs 50m free and open 50m breast with Katie Salmon (D) in second place, Rachel was placed second in the open 200m breast to race winner Katie Salmon (D), Lizzie won both the 15/16 years events for the 50m free and 100m fly and Matthew Quayle took both 13 years boys swims in the 100m breast and 50m back, Matthew first swim of the night was the Mens 200m breast in which he was drawn to a massive best personal best time behind race winner Gary Manley of Douglas. Ramsey SC double winners Coady Foulis 12 raced to a clear win in the 100m back plus the 50m fly and Martin Dias 14 who took 50m free and 100m fly.
The 11 year olds 200m Individual Medley produce some of the top races of the night, in the boys event it was a close race that ebbed and flowed between Andrew Issac (D), Kaysee Craine (R) and Oliver Shimmin (D) who's strong last 50 free secured the race for Oliver in a time of 2:52.74 seconds with Kaysee 0.74 of second behind and Andrew a further 0.43 of a second down. The girls 200m IM was taken by Olivia Rawlinson (R) who reduced her National Qualifying Time by 2 seconds to 2:44.27 seconds with Kate Bielch (R) in second place.
The remaining mens events went to Andrew Cowley (S) with a 2 seconds best time in the 50m breast and Naill Killey (D) with a sub 2005 Island Games time of 54.83 seconds in the 100m free with Andrew in second place. In the youngest age group for 9 year olds Alex Callow and Sophie Leaton, Ramsey, took the girls 50m free and breast with Tom Bielch (R) and Sean Doyle (D) taking the boys 50m free and breast. The 10 year old like the 9 year old was shared between four swimmers with Catherine Bread (S) and Grant Halsall (D) winning the 100m free swims, Lucy Riccardi (D) and Chris Wignal (S)took the 50m breast.
Lee Stoutt and Matthew Cheeseman added to the wins by Coady Fouls to make it a clean sweep for Ramsey SC in the 12 year old events, Stoutt won the 100m back and Cheeseman the 50m fly. Sarah Cain was a clear winner for Douglas in the 14 years 100m fly with a time of 1:15.18 seconds. Declan Quinn (R) raced to first place in the 15/16 years 50m free with James Baker winning the 100m fly.
The new format Lloyds TSB League matches have seen a massive increase in the numbers of swimmers from the Island Clubs gaining competitive experience in a wider range of events and distances. This next weekend sees a team of Twenty-Two swimmers travel to Liverpool to take part in City of Liverpool annual distance meet with Isle of Man swimmers facing strong challenges from swimmers from across the North West.
Max Stewart,
National Coach
