Skelmorlie twins Emma and Dean Binnie, far right, were among the medals as the North Ayrshire Swimming team took on the Kingston Sprints meet for the first time.


Ten-year-old Emma raced to victory in the 50m freestyle setting a new time half a second quicker than her best, while Dean took silver in the fly and was just off the podium with fourth place in the breaststroke.
The team of 35 swimmers came away with 28 medals with a remarkable PB conversion rate of 64 per cent at the short course pool in Larkhall.
Junior coach Alan Dickson said: “It’s quite an achievement considering the frequent opportunities the kids have had to race over 50m since the start of the season.
“It’s really difficult to keep achieving PBs the longer you’re in the sport.”
Eleven-year-old Cameron Hamill, from Largs, won a gold in the freestyle and took silver for fly, while Kouper Sloss, ten, grabbed silver in the freestyle and took bronze for breaststroke.
Twelve-year-old Rebecca Shanks improved in all her races, with her biggest drop in the breaststroke where she found more than two seconds over the two lengths of the pool.
Nine-year-old Rose Smith pulled off a hat-trick of PBs, with her biggest of more than 5.5 seconds winning her a bronze medal in fly. Lauren Peckover was nearly a second faster than before in her breaststroke race.
Ten-year-old Lucy McLaughlin from Skelmorlie was another to improve in every event, taking two seconds off her breaststroke and finishing in the top ten in backstroke.
Alan added: “I was also impressed with a group of our development swimmers, including Eva Bray, from Inverkip, who all did themselves proud. 
“She was one of the youngest on the team, at just eight-years-old.”
Zoe Matchett, 12, from West Kilbride, was around the top ten all day with new best times in fly, free and breaststroke, while Erin Finlayson, 13, took nearly four seconds off her fly and finished in 6th place in the backstroke.
Reflecting on his first experience of the Kingston Sprints, Alan said: “It was a pretty frantic day.
“Our swimmers weren’t getting any rest in between their races which changed the character making it more of a speed endurance event. Hopefully it will become a regular event on our calendar.”