Thurso's Ellie strikes gold in the pool

THURSO teenager Ellie Spencer struck gold at the weekend in the Scottish Schools Swimming Championships.

The sixth year Thurso High pupil triumphed in the 200 metre breaststroke final of the competition in the Dollan Aqua Centre in East Kilbride.

The seventeen-year-old completed a field day by winning silver in the 100 metres breaststroke.

A third medal went the way of the far north after Miller Academy’s Eve Nicholl won bronze in the under-12 backstroke.

They were among a group of six swimmers from Thurso who qualified for the national competition on the back of the times they posted at the Highland Schools finals in Inverness in December.

Ellie, of Achreamie, near Reay pulled out all the stops in the 200 metre breaststroke final of the 17-19 age group.

Early on, the six-way contest developed into a head to head between Ellie and Shannon McClelland, of Wallace Hall Academy, of Dumfriess-shire.

The latter led from the start and was almost a second ahead after 150 metres but Ellie battled back in the final length to overhaul her rival and touch in two minutes 46.5 seconds – three-quarters of a second in front.

Shortly before, she won a silver in the 100 metre breaststroke after coming home in one minute 16.53 seconds, behind Kirsten McKinlay, of Boclair Academy in Bearsden.

Ellie, who started swimming competitively as an eight year old, has won a clutch of honours, including representing Scotland at the Celtic Tri Nations Games in Wales in 2011.

She was the last Caithness pupil to win a Scottish Schools gold, having done so in the breaststroke at the event at Tolcross in Edinburgh two years ago.

Ellie, who puts in an average 17 hours of training each week at the Thurso pool, is hoping to go to university to study sports science. Eve, the only primary pupil from Caithness to qualify

for the national finals, excelled in the under-12 50 metre backstroke to register personal bests in both her heat and the final.

The 11-year-old qualified in fifth place in 37.78 seconds before shaving five-hundredth of a second off that time to finish third in the final.

She was the only swimmer at the meet to break her own previous best times in both the heats and the final.

Fifteen-year-old Emma Budge continued her sparkling recent form in her favoured backstroke in the finals of the 15/16 age group.

Her time of two minutes 28.77 seconds secured fifth place in the 200 metres while she finished sixth in the 100 metres, in 1.09.30.

As she qualifies for the same age group next year, Emma should be capable of getting in amongst the medals in the 2014 competition.

Jamie Mackinnon and Shaun Gray meanwhile showed up well in finishing 10th and 12th respectively in their events.

The sixth Thurso competitor, Katie Mackay, unfortunately was unable to take part after being beset by a virus.

All the far north contingent adapted very well given that few swimmers had prior experience of competing in a 50 metre pool.

They were accompanied by Thurso Amateur Swimming Club coaches David Spencer and Anne Nicoll.