Back in the swim of things at time trials

Oban Otters had a busy weekend recently with swimmers competing at the West District time trials at Tollcross in Glasgow and attending the Scottish Swimming Young Leaders training weekend in Largs.

Andrew Boyle, 16, and Rachel Carre, 15, travelled with new head coach Shannon McCuish to Tollcross in Glasgow for the West District time trials.

This was the swimmers’ first competitive meeting for more than two years and a tough event to qualify for, due to the high standards and number of competitors.

Andrew and Rachel both excelled, achieving six personal bests out of seven races between them, in challenging events including 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

Rachel said: ‘I was really nervous as we’d not raced for a long time, plus it was such a big event and venue. There was live streaming so my friends and family could watch me race from home. I was very happy with my results, getting personal bests in all four races. The best was taking 14 seconds from my 100m butterfly.

‘It was really good to compete again.’ Club captain Andrew Boyle thanked Shannon McCuish and David Robinson for supporting the swimmers with the training and at the competition.

Elsewhere, Kay Logan and Abby Docherty, both 15, travelled by train to Largs and met up with other teen swimmers from West and Midlands District for a weekend of team building and personal development.

The weekend included a Zoom call with international swimmer Hannah Miley and Dragon’s Den-style presentations of their ideas for team building within their club to Scottish Swimming District presidents.

Kay and Abby said: ‘The young leaders’ course was a great opportunity.

‘We met new people and learned new skills whilst having fun.

‘We developed some ideas which we plan to share with everyone so that the Otters continue to develop and improve for the benefit of everyone.

‘We’d definitely recommend this experience to other swimmers.’

The Otters are now looking forward to their club gala on Saturday December 4, the first competition for many swimmers and the first competition for older swimmers for more than two years.