Summer 2008

Since the second weekend of June the Dunoon swimmers have been busy – not only training in the pool but competing in the Scottish National Championships in Tollcross at the end of June and participating in various Open Water competitions in UK and Europe.

The Nationals hosted several of the British and French swimmers who are this week taking part in the Olympics. The seven Dunoon swimmers competing were lucky enough to be seated next to the French contingent in the competitors’ area over the 4 days of competition and to rub shoulders with Laura Manadou and Alain Bernard was a real privilege. The swimmers had varying degrees of success, with Ryan Blincow, Callum Moreland, Elaine Sherwood, David Robinson, and Andy Thomson all giving solid performances in their events – though not quite beating their personal best times. Leigh MacDonald swam the 50 metres backstroke in this, her first, Nationals and was very close to her best. Chris Ritchie had a busy schedule and his best performances were massive PB’s in the 200 metres butterfly and 200 metres backstroke – where he won his heat by a clear 20 metres.

In the Open Water, 12 years old Kyle Blincow savoured his first success at the East District Championships in Lochore, winning bronze in the 1k novice event. Eilidh McNab found the cold water not to her liking (a not uncommon reaction at first attempt) while Elaine Sherwood and Leigh MacDonald did well in their age groups, with Leigh also medalling.

The Scottish Championships at the same venue a month later saw Elaine and Leigh joined by Calum O’Loughlin and Andy Thomson – all swimming the 3k event. Andy came in 5^th overall – a great first performance, and the mixed relay team (4 x 500 metres) won the Scottish Gold medals, beating teams from Incas and Rutherglen into silver and bronze. The Riverside’s “adopted” swimmer, James Leitch, who had been training with the squad for 9 weeks while he was taking a course at the local diving academy, was runner up behind Bath University’s Jamie Forrest in both the 5k and 3 k events

Chris Ritchie travelled to Hoorn in Holland in the first week of August as part of the Scotland training squad. He swam a 5k race in very rough conditions and on the following day came 5^th and 6^th in the 1k age group event and the 2k breaststroke.

The most recent competition was the British Championships held at Holm Pierrepoint Rowing Lake in Nottingham on 9^th and 10^th August.

Chris, still only 14 years old, started the weekend for the Dunoon squad with a fantastic 10k race. This was his first attempt at this “marathon” event. A fascinating tussle developed over the four 2.5k circuits between Chris and another Chris - Chris Eynon, who is about to commence a swimming scholarship at Bath University. The Dunoon boy used the more experienced swimmer to lead the way for the first 2 laps then cut loose and hung on for a very impressive 6^th place in a time of 2 hours 14 minutes.

In the afternoon age group events, Elaine was the West District representative in the 2k race. With a big field of fast UK swimmers, she finished in 32 minutes and a good 13^th place.

The following morning dawned very blustery and Andy and Chris found the going hard in the 5k event. The final 1000 metres of each circuit was a battle against the wind and waves. Up against a very experienced and, in the main, much older field of swimmers both boys had a great race. Chris again out swam his rival Chris to come home in 1 hour 8 minutes, chasing and reeling in all the way down the last 700 metres the Glasgow 14 year old, Mark Deans, who has been succeeding in both pool and open water over the past 2 months. Andy in his first race at this distance was only 1 minute 13 seconds behind, and showed the talent and battling spirit that brought him so much success in the pool last year.

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