Local swimmers from the Largs area put in a series of remarkable performances at the North Ayrshire 200 Meet as the home club scooped 54 medals at the Aucheharvie pool, writes Rob Waller.

There were dominant performances both in the age-grouped 200m races and in the open distance events.

Head Coach Ross Douglas says the progress that’s been made in recent months was there for all to see.

“54 medals is an incredible total,” he enthused. “And even better was a personal best success rate of 90% from everyone that swam over the weekend.

“Last year we only had 13 swimmers who entered, this year we had 32 which shows the growth in the club, and a lot more people are contributing to the achievement.”

Among many stand-out performances was 14 year old Fraser Kelly from Largs who underlined what a strong season he’s had in 2018 in the final event of the weekend, the 400m IM, which got the whole crowd cheering as he battled 16 year old team mate James Marshall, also from Largs, for the win, taking it by 5 tenths of a second.

In sensational form he also took second in the 400m Free, in a field of 40 swimmers up to age of 20, and a third place in the 800m Free, plus a win in the 200m Free for 14 year olds.

James was involved in some very tight racing over the weekend taking the win in the 200m Breaststroke and also finishing second in the 200m IM.

Isla Waller achieved a clean sweep in the 200m events she entered with comfortable wins in the IM, Freestyle , Backstroke and Breaststroke setting a 17 second PB in the last of her 6 events over the weekend to take home the shield for the best 10 year old girl.

Junior Coach Alan Dickson was delighted with her performance in the daunting 800m Freestyle where she took a full 20 seconds off her predicted time in her first competitive race at the distance.

“She’d worked for a number of weeks to get her pacing right and achieved what she’d hoped for,” commented Alan “It was a cracking swim. “

“A particular highlight for me with the young swimmers was that we didn’t have any disqualifications in the 200 IM at all and it’s such an easy event to get DQ’d in, it’s so technical with all the stroke changes and they all coped with that really well.

Andrew Sutherland (14) from Fairlie won the shield for 14 year old boys with a win in the 200m Breaststroke, second placed finishes in the 200m IM and the 200m Backstroke and a 3rd in the 200m Free.

Jacob Tarran, (13) from Fairlie, won two bronze medals for his 200m Breaststroke and 200m Fly.

Fairlie ‘veteran’ Rosa Smith, who is winding down her competitive swimming career as she develops her skills on poolside helping to coach the Masters at Vikingar on Monday evenings.

The 17 year old showed she’d lost none of her speed taking a silver medal in the 200m IM, just a couple of seconds shy of her PB.

Rosa assures us we’ve not seen the last of her in the water and she’ll be back for the Club Championships later this year.