TWO Helensburgh teenagers became the first members of Helensburgh Amateur Swimming Club in well over a decade to win medals at the Scottish National Age Group championships when each brought home silver medals.

Caitriona Stewart and Alex Johnson were among 1,000 talented young swimmers from more than 90 clubs across the UK competing in the five-day event at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow.

Caitriona, swimming in the 13 years age group, competed in six events over four days, securing a place in five finals and recording personal best times in all her events – and unsurprisingly moving up several places in the Scottish rankings as a result.

The highlight of Caitriona’s week was the 50 metres freestyle, where she secured a silver medal in a fast paced final, storming to second place in 28.18 seconds.

In the 50m backstroke, meanwhile, she secured a 1.25sec improvement on her personal best time and moved up the rankings from 10th to fourth place, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.

The 100m freestyle saw Caitriona move up the rankings from 10th to seventh and knock 0.71s off her PB, and the 100m breaststroke she improved her PB by 1.15s and moved from 14th to seventh in the rankings.

In the 50m breaststroke she secured a 0.08sec PB and retained her ranking of sixth, and in the 50m butterfly she recorded a 0.3sec improvement on her PB and retained her 13th place in the rankings.

Alex, meanwhile, won a silver medal in the 100 metres butterfly final in the male 16 years age group, recording personal best times both in his heat and the final and jumping several places up the rankings in the process.

In a closely contested final Alex finished in 1:01.21, just one hundredth of a second ahead of the joint third placed finishers, securing a PB of 2.11 seconds and moving from a ranking of 11th to second.

Alex also competed in the arduous 400m freestyle and again clocked PBs in both the heat and the final.

His finishing time in the final of 4:21.91 saw him improve on his PB by a massive 4.9 seconds and earned him a jump from 12th place to sixth in the rankings after a fabulous performance.

Also in action at the finals was Roisin Kavanagh in the girls 11-13 years age grouping, making her debut at national level and swimming against opponents who were mostly a year older.

Roisin coped well with the pressure in her three events and was in the top five of the 12-year-old swimmers in each – definitely one to watch in future!

The swimmers excellent performance is testament to the support and dedication of the club’s coaches who are all parent volunteers.

If you are interested in joining the swimming club please visit the “contact us” page on our website: helensburghasc.co.uk.