Edinburgh University Swimming and Water Polo

Home

Edinburgh University Swimming and Water Polo

Edinburgh dominate at Scottish LC Championships

EUSWPC sent a 25 strong team to Tollcross last week, many with hopes of securing qualification for Commonwealth Games despite the notoriously tough qualifying times. As it turned out, the week was a mix of elation and disappointment for all clubs involved, as despite 13 Scottish swimmers making the cut there were also many other brilliantly gutsy swims that fell just below the standards.

Two Edinburgh swimmers, Kathryn Johnstone and Kerry Buchan, made the Scottish team for 50 breast and 100/200 breast respectively. Other notable mentions should go to Iain MacMillan - who after dominating the 200m butterfly all year finished only a second outside his required time, and Billy Purnell – who swam a colossal PB in the 400 IM only to fall a mere fraction of a second outside the target time.

Despite this, the team remained remarkably upbeat all week, something which may well have had a bearing on Edinburgh’s complete domination of the overall points. By the end of the week, the team had won by well over 100 points – highlighting that in just 2 years since entering into National competition, EUSWPC are now one of the powerhouses of Scottish swimming.

While this was the last port of call before hanging up the trunks for several of the athletes in the team, many are still training on into the summer. 9 team members will be competing at the Irish LC Nationals in Dublin near the end of the month, while several others will make appearances at the ASA Championships in early August.

Well done to Kathryn, Kerry and the rest of the team on a brilliant effort!

Full results can be found at www.swimscotland.co.uk

Blues & Half Blues

Congratulations to the following people in the club who are the latest to recieve blue or half-blue awards from the university:

Craig Meek (Blue)

James Thomson (Blue)

Theo Hirst (Half-Blue)

Bruce McLintock (Half-Blue)

Well done guys!

Swimmers power to BUCS Glory!

Edinburgh University swimming club rounded up their season last week with a stunning victory at the BUCS Team Championships in Sheffield. In a dramatic afternoon of racing, Edinburgh overturned a large lead held by Loughborough to pip the reigning champions to the title by just a single point.

An unlucky disqualification in the very first relay put the Scottish champions on the back foot, but it wasn’t long before the first points were in the bag. The men’s individual events got off to a flying start with Darren Ward winning the 100 IM comfortably in a personal best time of 57.33. Ward would later also gain crucial points in the 100 and 50 backcrawl, with 2nd and 1st place finishes respectively. Team Captain Judi Kilgallon put in a stirring effort in the 100 freestyle to finish 2^nd in a time of 56.67, well under the club record set by her sister a few years ago. Kilgallon went on to emulate this performance in the 100 backcrawl, again finishing 2^nd. Meanwhile, full points were taken by Craig Meek in the men’s 100 free, edging out Loughborough by just 0.06 seconds in a spectacular finish. After a tremendous effort in the 200 free, Meek finished his campaign in the freestyle events with a second place finish in the 50 free, recording 23.76 seconds in a closely fought race.

By this stage, it was emerging that Edinburgh’s main rivals in the title fight were Loughborough, Oxford, Nottingham and Manchester. Despite strong competitions from all these teams, Edinburgh stepped up to the plate and continued to give strong showings across the board. Breaststroke specialist Eleanor Brooke fought hard to secure 3^rd in the 100, finishing only 0.26 seconds outside 1st. Immediately after, she got to grips with the 200 freestyle and again finished in a solid 3^rd place. Mark Jaggs turned up the pressure further with 2^nd in the 100 breaststroke, followed by a storming victory in the 50. This, along with Darren Ward’s 50 backcrawl win, proved to be a turning point in the standings. Edinburgh were not even inside the top three with four races to go and these late victories enabled them to slide into medal contention.

The swimmers were blissfully unaware of their position in the standings and of the finishing drama that was about to unfold. The final two races for the 4x50 freestyle relay were hotly contested, with the top 5 universities only being separated by a handful of points. A top three placing would dramatically increase the overall team total, as relays scored double points. The women’s team of Jen Davis, Gayle Biggart, Judi Kilgallon and Eleanor Brooke finished a respectable 5^th, and so it came down to the men’s race to decide where Edinburgh would finish, and if they could create a repeat of the silver medal won at the same championships a year ago. In an enthralling race, the team of Darren Ward, Stuart Conley, Dave Errington and Craig Meek swam sub 24 second legs to finish in second place behind Oxford. At the same time, both Loughborough and Manchester got disqualified for early takeovers, effectively wiping out any disadvantage Edinburgh had with their earlier disqualification, and dramatically securing them the title by just the single point. It was a brilliant climax to the university season, made all the better by the fact that every single swim had contributed to winning the Championship in such dramatic fashion. Edinburgh’s captain, Judi Kilgallon, was delighted with the team’s success, commenting:

““We thought we would be lucky to come third, so I’m absolutely over the moon!”

While the BUCS competitions are now finished until the next university year, Edinburgh University swimmers will still be in action, starting from next week when nine swimmers will represent Scotland in the Celtic Varsities, and another team will also be heading to the British Commonwealth Trials in a bid to be selected for the 2010 games.

Congrats guys, and good luck to those in Celtics/Trials!

Edinburgh women eliminated from BUCS after controversial decision

The BUCS semi-finals for water polo took place in Walsall recently, with both Edinburgh’s men’s and women’s 1^st teams taking part in a tournament that is now becoming a staple in the club calendar each year. The men, albeit underdogs, were looking to emulate last year’s performance and make it through to the finals. The women had put in excellent performances all year round, and were hotly tipped to make it through to their 2^nd finals tournament in 3 years.