Schools battle in the pool for trophies
Pictured: Winners of Large School Trophy - Law Primary
On Friday 8th February, the finalists came together to compete in the East Lothian Primary School Swimming Gala.
The heats were held back in January, where 12 large schools and 11 small schools competed for a place in the finals and a chance to win points for their school. An additional 3 schools participated in the event this year compared to last year, meaning we had just over 220 swimmers competing over the two rounds of heats.
The swimmers competed in freestyle, backcrawl and breaststroke individual races, before the relay events completed the morning of swimming. The atmosphere was incredible, with the swimmers cheering and supporting each other throughout the morning.
Our special guest Kenneth Baird, presented the winners with their awards. Ken started this event in 1977 and has presented these medals for the last two years. Kenneth’s last year organising the event was in 1985, where he was presented with a medal for his services to school swimming.
The winner of each race was presented with an award before we moved onto the school trophies.
Overall points were:
Large School Champions – Law 73 points (pictured top)
Runners Up – Dunbar 64 points
Third – Windygoul 43 points
Small School Champions – Compass 39 points
Runners Up – Aberlady 22 points
Third – Pencaitland 21 points
Large School Relay Champions – Law and Dunbar (Joint Winners)
Small School Relay Champions – Compass (pictured above)
Merit Awards went to:
Zara Krawiec (Windygoul) for winning two events, improving both her times from the heats and breaking a record
Angus Morton (Law) for winning two events and improving both his times from the heats
Ross Anderton (Ormiston) for winning two events
The Merit Trophy was awarded to Ben Williamson (Compass) for winning both his events, improving both his times from the heats and breaking two meet records.
Meet records were introduced at last year’s event, with a number being broken this year.
Meet Records went to:
Ben Williamson (Compass) – P7 and under Freestyle and Backstroke
Tegan Black (Dunbar) – P7 Freestyle
Alex Taylor (Prestonpans) – P6 and under Backstroke
Ella Steedman (Windygoul) – P7 Backstroke
Declan Kay (Macmerry) – P7 and under Breaststroke
Lottie Gilhooley (Aberlady) – P7 and under Breaststroke
Zara Krawiec (Windygoul) – P6 and under Breaststroke
P6 Boys Relay team – Gullane
P7 Girls Relay Team – Dunbar
A huge thanks to all the swimmers that participated in the event, the schools helpers, the volunteers and officials who all helped make the event a success.
