Another Winning Weekend

REN96 is Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire’s largest swimming club and club swimmers were in action again over one of the busiest weekends of the Scottish long course season - and what a weekend it turned out to be!

On Friday, REN96 swimmers were competing at the Scottish Schools Finals in East Kilbride.  It was a long day for some of the swimmers with heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon and evening.  It was worth it though as REN96’s swimmers produced some fantastic performances while representing both REN96 and their school.  For many REN96 swimmers it was the first time that they had qualified for, and competed in, a National final, giving them invaluable top-level race experience.  

 

Congratulations go to the swimmers for qualifying for the finals, as competing in the finals is a massive achievement, but to go on and win medals at a national level is outstanding.  REN96 swimmers did the club and their schools proud by bringing home an outstanding gold medal, 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. In his first time at a National long course final, 12 years old Rhys, from Paisley, won gold in the under 12, 50m back crawl, with a winning time of just over 36 seconds.  Scottish Schools champion - well done Rhys!

 

On Saturday REN96 swimmers were straight back into the pool with the club’s Development, Age Group and Performance squads competing at the North Ayrshire 200 Meet in Irvine.  After the previous day’s exertions it wouldn’t have been any surprise if some of the swimmers were tired but, if they were it didn’t show as they showed great resilience and again raised the bar in the pool.  Across the weekend REN96 swimmers delivered significantly improved personal best times along with many new and improved consideration times for SNAGS (Scottish National Age Group Swimming) championships.  

 

After competing for their schools on Friday it was great to see REN96’s swimmers once again competing as a team.  Creating an energy filled atmosphere, REN96’s attitude outside of the pool and performances in the pool did not go unnoticed, recognised by them bringing home 13 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 11 bronze medals.  Congratulations to all the swimmers involved.   

 

Further south, across the weekend, REN96’s Senior Performance squad swimmer Gabi competed in Sheffield at the British University Championships, racing in a range of fly and freestyle individual races along with team relay events.  Well done, Gabi!

 

It’s great to see all the hard work paying off for REN96 swimmers across all the squads.

 

Competing and performing so well at these events would not be possible without the support of the many coaches, Team Managers and helpers, club volunteers and supporters - REN96’s swimmers give a massive thank you to everybody that gives up their time to help the club.

 

Allan Kelly for REN96