June 2010	British Gas Masters & Senior Age Group Championships & Great East Swim Perth gained a new national swimming champion last weekend, with Graeme Hunter winning 3 freestyle gold medals at the British Masters and Senior Age Group Championships. Graeme, of Perth City Swim Club, was competing in the 18 to 24 age group, in the long course event at Glasgow’s Tollcross pool. He put in a great set of performances to win at 50m, 100m and 200m distances, including a personal best time of 2:03.97 to win the 200. He followed up his freestyle wins with a bronze in the 50m butterfly in another personal best time. The Perth club very nearly claimed another champion at the meet, with Shona Booth missing out on a gold medal in the 50m breastroke by a mere 10th of a second. Shona, also in the highly competitive 18 to 24 age group added to her silver medal with a bronze in the 100m breastroke. The British titles have been the reward for many years of hard training and racing for Graeme and follows on from his success at the Short Course Masters event in April. Now 20, he has been swimming competitively since the age of 10 and although this is his biggest win to date, but he is hoping to improve even further next season. The Masters event attracts a very high standard of swimmers and is one of the highlights of the annual swimming calendar. They will both take great heart from their performances as they move on to this weeks Scottish National Championships, which again take place at Tollcross. Perth City Head Coach Ann Dickson was delighted with the results and had high hopes that they would both be able to gain at least a semi-final place in their specialist events. She was very pleased that 2 of the clubs senior swimmers were competing at a high level and gaining the rewards as they were reaching the peak of their performance. Other Perth City swimmers with high hopes for the Scottish National Championships, which include qualification for this years Commonwealth Games in Delhi, are Camilla Hattersley and Stephen Milne. Both of them are members of the Scottish Youth Development Squad and will be hoping to shake off the fatigue from a busy schedule of events to be at their best in Glasgow. In recent days they have been competing in open water events, with Camilla taking third in place the women's youth age group at the British Gas Great East Swim at Alton Water Reservoir, near Ipswich in Suffolk. Stephen claimed 6th place in the men's youth event over a 1 mile distance. There were over 3,000 swimmers taking part in the event which is one of a series of events being held around the UK this summer. Along with her medal, Camilla was allowed to keep her wetsuit from the event where the water was rather chilly. This was in stark contrast to the conditions they had encountered in their first Great Britain Junior Open Water training camp earlier in June, when they travelled to Italy and then on to Nice for intensive training.
April 2010	Scottish Gas National Open Short Course Masters Championships Tollcross, Glasgow, 23rd - 24th April 2010 Graeme with his Medals.         Graeme Hunter flew the flag for Perth City at the 2010 National Masters Short Course Championship at Tollcross in Glasgow. Over the weekend Graeme personally accumulated 8 gold and two silver medals, a fantastic achievement in the very competitive 18 to 24yr age group.  The weekend started on Friday evening with mere silver in the 100m breaststroke, but this was immediately followed by his first gold, in possibly Graeme’s best event, the 100m freestyle, and then gold’s two and three in the 50m butterfly and 100m IM, both of these achieved with new Personal Best times. Saturday’s events started as positively as Friday’s had concluded with a convincing win in the 200m freestyle and another new PB, followed by another silver medal in the 50m backstroke. Saturday morning's events were completed with gold number five in the 100m butterfly, Graeme knocking a massive 3 seconds off his previous best time 100m fly time. In the final session of the weekend, Graeme went on to win another 3 gold medals in the 50m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle achieving two new PBs in the short-sharp 50m races. Graeme’s haul of 10, mainly gold, medals in 2010 contrasts with the 5 silver medals he won at the same event in 2009 and illustrates the ever improving quality of swimmers, both young and old from Perth City Swim Club. Also swimming at this event was Trudy Brown, swimming for Perth Masters, although Trudy is a coach with PCSC, and possibly the quickest of the coaching team, achieving a gigantic PB in her 800m freestyle event on the Friday night.   Scottish National Age group championships, Tollcross, Glasgow. 8-11th April 2010 Perth Swimmers who took part at the Age Group Nationals Perth City Swim Club’s star continued to shine brightly at the Scottish National Age Group Championships in Glasgow last week. Although the club had far fewer swimmers than many others, they went on to bring home 9 titles, 12 medals, and 36 new long course personal best times between them, 16 of which were also new overall personal bests. Among the younger swimmers, Emily Horne made her mark with her heat time in the 100m freestyle, which saw her entering the final as 5th fastest. Although denied glory on this occasion, achieving a place in the final at this level of competition is a fantastic achievement in itself. Tobermory MacKay-Champion also made it through to his first National final in the 100m breaststroke , finishing 10th with an impressive new long course pb  . Despite recent illness, the Muncey sisters gave plucky performances, with Eleanor making the most of her own first experience of a Scottish National Championship event, coming very close to her personal best in the 200m backstroke. Big sister Laura, meanwhile, produced an excellent personal best after a very strong finish in the 200m individual medley. Sandie Smillie demonstrated her growing confidence as she produced solid performances in her first ever long course attempts at 1500m and 800m,  adding an excellent swim in the 400m Individual Medley for good measure. She also achieved pbs in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 100m back and breaststroke events. Erin Torrie showed that hard work pays off as she produced another excellent personal best in the 100m butterfly for the second time in a month. Roddy Horne was kept very busy, achieving personal bests in almost every one of his 10 events with a particularly impressive performance in the 400m freestyle over his previous long course personal best time. Although she has had a long battle against injury, Rebecca Donaldson managed a worthy performance in each of her events, matching her opponents stroke for stroke in the first 2 lengths of the 200m backstroke. Eamon Rivers was hot on the heels of his main rival in the 100m and 200m butterfly events, chasing the Scottish Age Group record holder all the way to finish 4th in the 100, and also achieving a fine personal best in the 200m freestyle. Camilla Hattersley continued her dominance of the girls’ Distance events. A nail biting finish in the 800m saw her snatch the title from under the nose of her nearest rival, while a truly masterful swim in the 1500m freestyle, timed with her usual precision, left no doubt who was in charge as she finished 10 seconds ahead of the silver medallist to take Open Champion. She added a new string to her bow in the 400m freestyle, where a compelling performance saw her time slashed by over 7 seconds to bring her a 3rd Open Champion title. In the boys’ events, Stephen Milne began the weekend as he meant to go on, taking Open Champion in the 15 years age group with a superb new personal best in the 1500m, and adding bronze in the 200m butterfly and 100m freestyle for good measure. Day 2 brought gold as Champion in the 200m backstroke and bronze in the 400m Individual Medley. On day 3, Stephen went on to take gold to become Open Champion in the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle events, while the final day saw him claim gold as Open Champion in the 800m freestyle, and take silver and Scottish Champion in the 200m freestyle. Perth City Head Coach Ann Dickson was obviously delighted with the swimmers’ performances and with the medal tally, the highest of any club in SASA Midland District. There was still further good news to come when National Coach Doug Campbell announced that Camilla and Stephen had been selected for the forthcoming GB Junior Open Water training camp in June, when they will travel to Italy and then on to Nice for intensive training before returning to the UK to take part in the British Gas Great East Swim in Suffolk later that month. Although there is still the hurdle of Standard Grade examinations to overcome, both Camilla and Stephen declared themselves thrilled at the prospect of their first GB camp, just one of the many highlights of what has been a phenomenal season so far for these two young athletes and for Perth City Swim Club.
March 2010	WISE Schools International Swimming Championships. Tollcross, Glasgow. 19/20th March 2010 Eamon & Steven Respectively. The 39th WISE Schools International Swimming Championships took place at Tollcross in Glasgow on 20th March 2010, with Scotland playing host to the teams from England, Ireland and Wales at this year’s event. Eamon Rivers and Stephen Milne were part of the 40-strong Scottish team selected to take part, the Scots producing one of the best team performances of recent years. In the individual events, Eamon claimed bronze and the points for Scotland in the 16-18 years 100m butterfly, following up in the afternoon session with another fine swim to again take both bronze and the points in the Open 200m butterfly. The afternoon session also saw Stephen in action in the 14-16 yrs 100m freestyle and backstroke, where a valiant swim in the freestyle saw him denied the bronze by 0.01sec, but securing the Scottish points ahead of his West of Scotland teammate. This was followed by another creditable 4th place in the backstroke. In the relay events, Stephen swam a determined first leg alongside the English leadoff swimmer, the team ultimately achieving a commendable 2nd place. The 16-18 boys’ team rounded off the morning session in superb style with a decisive win in the 4x100m medley relay event, Eamon maintaining an early advantage over the other 3 nations with a solid performance in the butterfly leg that saw him hand over a lead of almost 2½ seconds to the freestyle anchorman, a gap which proved too great for the English men to close. More information about the Championships past and present can be found Here and full results are available at Here.
	Midland District Championships 5/7th March 2010 Record Breakers at Midland District Over 200 of Midland District’s top swimmers gathered in Dundee over the weekend of March 5th to 7th 2010 for the annual Scottish Amateur Swimming Association Midland District Age Group and Open Championships. 27 athletes from Perth City qualified and entered this year’s Championships, with a total of 161 entries in the individual events. The highest recorded number of entries in recent years, this is a measure of the Club’s continuing strength and sustained success in competitive speed swimming. Camilla Hattersley began the proceedings in style on Friday evening, winning Open and Junior Champion in the Women’s 400m freestyle before going on to victory with Jane Cowan, Rebecca Donaldson and Laura Muncey in the Girls’ Junior Medley Relay, where the team set a new District Junior record of 2:09.52. The girls also picked up silver in the Junior Freestyle relay event. The Open Women’s relay team of Shona Booth, Heather Booth, Rebecca Donaldson and Camilla took bronze in the Medley event, but a thrilling final 25m of the Freestyle event saw them snatch victory in the last few metres to become Open Champions. The Men’s Open relay team of Graeme Hunter, Keiran Torrie, Eamon Rivers and Stephen Milne were runners up in both events, while the Junior team of Roddy Horne, Tobermory MacKay-Champion, Hamish Milne and Stephen took bronze in theirs. Stephen was Junior Champion in the 400m freestyle, and Open and Junior Champion in the 200m backstroke, breaking Richard Hope’s 1992 District Junior record in a time of 2:07.23. In the age group events, there were medals for Tobemory MacKay-Champion-silver and Roddy Horne-gold, and Eleanor Muncey-bronze and Sandie Smillie-bronze in the 400m freestyle. In the 200m backstroke, Roddy, Eleanor and Camilla claimed gold, Sandie silver, and Rebecca bronze. Saturday morning saw Stephen declared Junior Champion in the Men’s 200m individual medley and 100m butterfly events, and Camilla crowned Junior Women’s Champion in the 100m butterfly. Eamon Rivers followed up as Open Champion in the Men’s 100m fly. In this session there were individual medals in the 200IM for Tobermory-silver, Roddy-gold, Keiran-bronze, Eamon-bronze, and Rebecca-bronze. The 100m breaststroke brought medals for Tobermory-gold, Roddy-silver, Sarah Cowan-silver, Jane-silver and Laura-bronze. Rebecca also took silver in the 100m butterfly   In the afternoon session, Stephen and Eamon completed the double as Men’s Junior and Open Champions in the 200m butterfly, Eamon producing a spectacular performance to break Billy McGoldrick’s 1986 District record in a superb time of 2.05.79. Later in the session Camilla went on to take Women’s Junior Champion in the 100m breaststroke while Shona Booth took the Open title. Stephen won Junior and Open Champion in the Men’s 100m backstroke, setting another new 15-16 years District Age Group record of 59.20 in this event and also breaking the District Junior record which had stood since April 1988. There were individual medals too for the 200m fly: Roddy-gold, Eleanor- silver, Rachel Bonthrone-silver, Laura-bronze. In the 100 breaststroke, Stephen and Graeme took a bronze apiece. Roddy was runnerup in the 100m freestyle, and in the 100 backstroke Eamon took bronze and Rebecca gold.    On Sunday the action continued, Camilla clinching Junior Champion in the 200m breaststroke and 100m freestyle, and adding Open Champion in the 100m free for good measure, with Stephen taking the Junior title in the Men’s 100m freestyle. Shona Booth took gold as Open Champion in the Women’s 200m breaststroke. In the Age Groups there were golds for Sarah  and Sandie, and bronze for Laura. Tobermory took gold, Roddy silver and Stephen bronze. In the 100m butterfly, Erin Cummins was runnerup, Struan Hattersley won bronze, Tobermory silver and Roddy gold. In the 100 free, Graeme Hunter took bronze. In the 100m backstroke, Erin won bronze as did Eleanor, and Roddy took gold. On Sunday afternoon, the final session saw Camilla go on to become Junior and Open Champion in the 200m freestyle, with Stephen taking Junior in the corresponding men’s event. Individual medals went to Eleanor and Roddy, who both took silver. The age group relay teams rounded off the afternoon, with bronze for the 11 year old boys team of Steven Shannon, Gregor Ritchie, Struan and Andrew Morrison in both their events. The girls 13-14 team of Sandie, Laura, Jane and Rachel took silver in the medley and freestyle, and that of Erin Torrie, Laura Kemp, Jodie Sutherland and Eilidh Davidson taking bronze in the free. All in all a fine set of results for this year’s Championships, bringing more consideration times for the Nationals Age Groups along with the pb’s and medals, and a magnificent total of 13 of the 22 trophies that were up for grabs at this meet. The Club’s success is a superb testament to the hard work of our coaching team and the dedication of all our club volunteers, without whose participation as marshals, announcers, AOE operators and technical officials it would not be possible to run the District Meets and Championships. Thank you to everyone who took part and supported the gala. .
	DSE National Junior Swimming Championships Congratulations to Reagan Doig on her success at the DSE Junior Swimming Championships, held at Ponds Forge Sheffield over the weekend of March 6/7th 2010. In her first gala representing Scotland, Reagan swam very well, coming first in the S14 100m back and also winning gold in the 50m back, 50m breast, 100m breast, 200IM, 100m fly; silver in the 50m freestyle, 50m fly and 100IM, and bronze in the 100m freestyle. The meet report can be found on the scottish swimming website Here and you can find the full results and more about disability sports including swimming Here.
January 2010	City of Glasgow Graded Meet Perth City swimmers produced some excellent pb's over the weekend of 6/7th February at the City of Glasgow Graded Meet. This competition is an excellent chance to gain experience in the Olympic pool at Tollcross, and is the only graded long course (50m) meet in the Scottish calendar. Although the gala is always very oversubscribed, 10 girls and 8 boys from Perth had the chance to take part, and made the most of the opportunity. There were some great swims across the two days, with Erin Cummins putting in particularly impressive performances in all her events. Congratulations too to Freya Thomson, our youngest competitor, for her excellent result in the butterfly, and to Kirsty Pitts for producing the only Too Fast award of the weekend in the 100m backstroke. Medal winners were Erin Cummins 3rd 200m IM, 4th 100m free, 2nd 100m fly ; Catriona MacIntosh 5th 400 free, 5th 200m IM, 4th 100m fly; Kirsty Pitts 5th 50m free, 5th 100m free, 3rd 100m fly, TF 100m back ; Ellen Davie 5th 50 breaststroke, 4th 100m breaststroke; Reagan Doig 4th 100m fly; Struan Hattersley 5th 400m free, 6th 100m back, ; Hamish Milne 6th 100m back Well done to all who took part, and to club officials who generously gave up their time to help Scottish Schools Swimming Championships Above are the medal winners from the Scottish Schools Swimming Championships. Eamon Rivers (left) won a Gold for the 100m Fly and a Silver. Camilla Hattersley (centre) won Bronze in the 400m Freestyle and Steven Milne (right) won Gold in both the 100m and 200m Backcrawl. Stirling Junior Meet 12 swimmers from Perth City Swim Club took part in the annual Stirling Junior Open Meet held at the superb new Stirling Peak Sports Centre on January 23rd/24th 2010. Over the course of the weekend there were 30 new personal best times, with particularly impressive improvements by Regan Doig, Emily Horne and Tobermory Mackay-Champion.  The team collected a total of 22 medals, their success being led by Camilla Hattersley who achieved Gold in all but one of her events and scooped the Cup for Best Girl in the 14 years age group.  Podium places were also achieved by Emily and Roddy Horne, Tobermory Mackay-Champion, Laura Muncey and Sandie Smillie. Scottish National Short Course Championships 13 Perth City swimmers took part in the Scottish National Short Course Championships in Glasgow on 15-17th January 2010 putting in a superb performance that brought 32 new personal best times, including a memorable 33.85s improvement on his previous personal best in the 1500m freestyle by Roddy Horne. Camilla Hattersley achieved podium success in the age group events, winning silver in the 800 free and 400IM , and bronze in the 400 freestyle, while Stephen Milne took gold in the 400 free and 1500 free, bronze in the 100IM and 400IM, and was Scottish Junior Champion in the 200m freestyle. Well done to all swimmers who took part, and a vote of thanks to the Club officials who helped make the meet a success. Steven & Camilla with medal haul. Steven Swimming at the Nationals. Image by Ian macnicol images Welsh Dragon New Years Meet Camilla Hattersley and Stephen Milne travelled to Swansea on 8th January for the British Gas Swim Wales New Year Dragon Open Meet, held at the Wales National Pool. Although they were faced with strong competition from swimmer from clubs across England and Wales, Camilla came second overall in the 400m IM taking the Youth gold, and went on to claim bronze in the 1500m freestyle. Stephen won gold in the 1500m free and 200m backstroke, silver in the 800m and 400m freestyle events, and bronze in the 100m backstroke Youth section. Both achieved qualifying times for the ASA Youth Championships this summer.
October 2009	UKCC Level 1 Coaching Swimming course A congratulatory and thank you letter to everyone who took part in the above is available Here.
February 2009	Well done to all Perth City swimmers who swam in the above event as part of the Tayside Schools team Back - Rachel Bonthrone, Laura Muncey, Keiran Torrie, Josh Rowley, Roddy Horne, Rebecca Donaldson, Hannah Ferguson Front - Sandie Smillie, Hamish Milne, Stephen Milne, Camilla Hattersley, Eamon Rivers, Emily Horne, Erin Torrie Not pictured - Jane Cowan, who missed the photo because of the snow. Sorry, Jane! Camilla - silver,   13-14 girls 200m breaststroke & silver, 13-14 girls 200m freestyle Eamon - silver,   17-19 boys 200 butterfly Stephen - bronze,  15-16 boys 200m backstroke
January 2009	The team notched up a fantastic total of 50 new personal best times, with the Cup for Best Girl in the 14 years age group going to Rebecca Donaldson after a decisive victory in the 100m backstroke gave her an unassailable points lead over her rivals. Camilla Hattersley added to her outstanding success in Glasgow the previous weekend, where she took bronze in the Girls 800m freestyle at the Scottish National Short Course Championships, by claiming the Trophy for Best 13 year old girl, including a record-breaking swim in the 200m Individual Medley. Pictured left to right are Rebecca Donaldson, Roddy Horne, Hannah Ferguson, Jane Cowan, Stephen Milne and Camilla Hattersley.
January 2009	Camilla Hattersley in Glasgow: She took bronze in the Girls 800m freestyle at the Scottish National Short Course Championships

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