Isle of Man Swimmers arrived home with a bag full of medals from the recent City of Liverpool Distance Meet, writes Max Stewart.
The 22 strong team returned with a haul that included 10 gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze medals, plus new national times, a meet record and a junior Island record.
The Island's most successful swimmer was 11 year old Olivia Rawlinson who raced to 4 golds that included new national times in the 200 metre freestyle, backstroke and butterfly, plus an improved national time in the 200m individual medley (IM).
Olivia also took silvers in the 400m and 800m free, both swims just landing outside national standard. Her achievements saw her placed second overall 11-year-old girl swimmer at the meet.
Team-mate Kate Bielich 11, was in determined mood as she went into the 200m IM and produced a blistering last length to set her first national time, finishing in third place, Kate also took third places in both the 200m and 800m freestyle events and made it a Manx one-two in the 200m backstroke behind Olivia.
A new Junior Island record was set by Kimberley Manley, 15, for the 1500m freestyle in a time of 19:48.15. She lowered the previous record set by Ruth Crellin in 1992 by 1 minute 16 seconds, Kimberley also took bronze for the 400m IM.
Craig Moore, 13, was also in record breaking form and set a new age group mark for the meet in the 800m freestyle on his way to grabbing gold.
Isle of Man swimmers clinched the top three places in the girls 14 years 400m IM. The lead change a number of times as swimmers progressed through the different strokes with Sarah Cain finally taking gold, Katie Salmon silver and Rachel Ganley bronze. Sarah also won a bronze medal in the 200m fly.
David Quine, 12, completed a full set of medals in his age-group, winning gold in the 400m IM swim, silver for the 200m backstroke and bronze in the 200m butterfly.
Distance swimmer Niall Shimming, 15, was in good form taking gold for the 1500m freestyle with a 28 second best time. He also won silver in the 400m freestyle and bronze medals for the 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m IM, all of which meant Niall finished second overall 15 year old boy at the meet. The Islands final gold was clinched when 12 year old Tom Issac finished ahead of the field in the 1500m free.
Giselle Whitlam-Riley, 13, clinched three silvers for the 800m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 200m IM, all in personal best times. This was a recurring theme for our swimmers during the meet as they went on to set an incredible 94 personnel best times from over 130 swims.
Elizabeth Ramsey, 15, took silvers for the 400m IM and 200m butterfly, plus a bronze medal for the 800m freestyle. Lizzies swims placed her second in her age group while Giselle was third for her age group.
Matheu Marshall, 12, and Sarah Stannard, 14, claimed their first silver medals in open competition, both for the 1500m free.
Bronze medals went to 11 year Andrew Issac who raced to three bronze medals for the 200m and 400m IM plus the 200 fly. Andrew Cowley, 17, raced to his bronze medal in the 400m freestyle and along with his other solid swims saw him take second overall swimmer in the 16 years plus age group.
The great team spirit and tough attitude shown by our swimmers saw the Isle of Man finishing in third place behind winning home club Liverpool and Wirral Metro. The meet will act as a great lead in to the Isle of Mans Lloyds TSB Distance Championships this Saturday, February 7th at the NSC when more national times and records will be up for grabs.
Max Stewart,
National Coach
