Scottish Disability Sport / Scottish Swimming National Performance Swim Championships 2019
Sunday 20th January 2019
The Mercat Gait Centre in East Lothian played host to the Scottish Disability Sport / Scottish Swimming National Short Course Performance Swim Championships on Sunday 20th January 2019, attracting 40 swimmers with a physical, visual, hearing or learning impairment from all regions of the country.
The Performance Championships are a strong partnership event between Scottish Disability Sport and Scottish Swimming and were introduced to support regional development and create an appropriate competition for regional and national squad swimmers, inviting individuals from the Highlands, Grampian, Central, Fife the West and East of Scotland. The event implements the IPC Multi-Classification system and for a number of swimmers, this was the first time they had experienced the British Swimming Points Scoring System allowing them valuable an introduction to these conditions and therefore preparing them for future competitions.
This years event welcomed several swimmers for the first time, many of whom are working towards an official classification and the championships provide an excellent platform for these individuals to record times over distances they might not have competed over in the past. One swimmer new to the event was Fife’s Katie Pake – the Carnegie Swimming Club youngster recording four personal best times including the 100m free (1.37.91).
Other notable performances on the day came from West of Scotland swimmer Louis Lawlor and Highland’s Tamsin Neef. The two S14 swimmers claimed a clean sweep with Lawlor (City of Glasgow Swim Team) taking home gold medals in the 200m free, 100m fly, 200m IM and 100m free, while Neef (TAIN ASC) claiming first places in 100m back, 200m free, 100m fly, 100m breast, 200m IM and 100m free.
Scottish Disability Sport would like to express thanks to all the dedicated volunteers from the SASA East District for their invaluable support on the day, as well as the expertise provided from multi Paralympic medallists Jim Anderson OBE and Paul Noble MBE who kindly presented medals and provided expert commentary throughout the day.
Paul Wilson, the Disability Performance Development Manager at Scottish Swimming, was also present to ensure the smooth running of the event lending his experience to the points system for the event.
For further information on the event or swimming for people with disabilities in Scotland, contact Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130 or alternatively email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.