Bluefins do well and meet Olympic hero
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A TEAM of 12 swimmers travelled up to Thurso last weekend, and a great time was had by all swimmers, coaches and parents. They stayed over for two nights in the local Guide Hut and a disco on the Saturday night was enjoyed immensely by the youngsters.
On the swimming side of things Callum McBeath had some fantastic swims getting meet records in Breast stroke and Fly and 4 gold medals into the bargain. All the other swimmers produced very good performances for so early in the season, Alex Allan(15) taking silver for 100 breaststroke, Fay Prosser(11) silver for 100 backstroke, also taking huge chunks off her pb’s in other swims. Connor Fleming took the bronze for the boy’s 13-14 100 backstroke, Ben Nicholas took 11 seconds off his previous time for 100 fly and Olivia and Callum Wright also had impressive performances in their butterfly and backstroke swims.
Two young Bluefins Mary McIntosh and Jessica Howard were also competing at the weekend at the Garioch Open 200.They were looking forward to this meet as they were hoping Hannah Miley was going to be there.
The first thing they did was look at the programme to see if their idol was on it. Jessica was so disappointed not to see her name on the start sheets but that didn’t stop her from swimming her best, 7 seconds off her 200 breaststroke in the morning. Mary also swam well and Neil Hawco also had a good swim on the Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning the girls looked again at the start sheets but no Smiley Miley on it. After lunch they were getting ready for their warm up when Jess saw Hannah going to sit with her Garioch team, the atmosphere in the room was of excitement, all the young swimmers wanting a glimpse of an Olympian.
After the warm up there was an opportunity for the young ones to get their photo with her, she was smiling all the time and very amenable, signing hats and fins etc for the young swimmers. The girls both had good swims throughout the weekend but Jess’s highlight was definitely meeting a lovely charming young woman who should be very proud of herself for achieving so much and still being down to earth and taking time for the up and coming swimmers, Hannah Miley.
