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Matthew Henry from Liddaton who is a member of the Kelly College Swim Squad won his first senior title at the Scottish Short Course (25m) Swimming Championships last weekend (15th – 17th January 2010) at the Tollcross Aquatic Centre in Glasgow. The nineteen year-old was quietly pleased with his performance in the 1500m Freestyle event where he posted a personal best time of 15:45.44 to win by a clear 8 second margin over Ian Porteous from the City of Glasgow. Matthew said “ This was a great break through for me, the race was hard but I know I can go faster and, shows I am on track for the British Championships in April”. This was a fitting performance for Matthew who has been a member of the Kelly Swim Squad for the past 10 years. Matthew has had to overcome many setbacks in his swimming career due to ear complications and surgery and to win in Scotland is testament to his dedication and determination to swim at senior International level.
Fourteen Kelly College Swimmers made the journey to Scotland to compete in the Championships in the first stage of this year’s preparation for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Deli, India in October. Other outstanding performances were from Kelly’s seventeen year-old Cameron Brodie and, sixteen year-old Blaine Small who both collected senior Bronze medals in the men’s and women’s 200m Fly respectively. Both Cameron and Blaine are in contention for Commonwealth Games slots for the Scottish Team when selection trials take place later in the year.
17 year-old Patrick Blake stormed the ‘B’ Final of the 50m Backstroke and led from start to finish using his devastating turning technique in the short course pool to win in a time of 27.77 seconds.
Another great performance came from Lawrence Oxborough from Mary Tavy in the ‘B’ final of the 200m Freestyle. Lawrence took the competition by surprise and also led from start to finish to win from an outside lane in 1:54.78.
In the Age Group events of the championships, 14 year-old Matthew Courtis produced a staggering 60 second personal best time in the 1500m freestyle (17:36.21) and, Kelly’s George Humphrey , also 14, similarly improved his 400m Freestyle time by some 10 seconds (4:20.67) to finish seventeenth in the 15-year category.
Kelly Swimmers qualified for a total of 14 ‘A’ and 5 ‘B’ National Championship finals and produced 45 personal best performances between them. Swimmers included:
Matthew Henry, Cameron Brodie, Sean Perfect (Team Captain), Patrick Blake, Charlie Bayliss, George Humphrey, Matthew Courtis, Lawrence Oxborough, Bruce Trail, Elliot Boon, Blaine Small, Emma Bysouth, Katherine Larcombe, and Chelsey Taylor.
