The SDS National Swimming Championships for swimmers with a physical disability or sensory impairment took place on Saturday 22nd April 2023 at Grangemouth Sports Complex. It marked the 50th anniversary of this event that first took place in 1973 in Glenrothes and has been a key part of the pathway for all Scottish para swimmers ever since.
It is always great to see our returning swimmers continuing to develop and improve on their personal best times. This year we had 62 swimmers competing from across 7 regions.
The male events were dominated by Aaron McDowell from Lothian who won the 100m IM, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and the 100m freestyle.
The female events were closely contested with Kathryn White from West of Scotland winning the 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and the 100m IM. The 100m breaststroke was won by Eilidh Fisher from Highland and returning legend Hope Gordon put in a great performance to win the 100m freestyle also for the Highland team.
This years team trophy was won by West of Scotland who retained their title from last year.
As it was the 50th anniversary, SDS invited some legends of the event to compete in a relay at the end of the championships. The first relay team consisted of Lara Ferguson, Robert Dalgleish, Stefan Hoggan, Martin Mansell and Lucy Walkup. The other team consisted of Paul Noble, Beth Johnston, Craig Smith, Hope Gordon and Ben Rowlings. This produced an incredibly close race ending with Lara Ferguson just touching out Paul Noble to take the victory.
Many other past swimmers and invited guests were also in attendance to mark the 50th anniversary and watch the current generation of swimmers perform to a brilliant standard.
Throughout the years it has been the people behind the event that have made it what it is and SDS is again grateful to all coaches, volunteers and officials that helped make this year’s championships happen. Huge thanks to our volunteer photographer Gordon Elliott who took these amazing images of the day.
If you were at our event please take a moment to evaluate this so we can continue to improve for future championships.
Please go to our swimming page for more information on this and future events.