Local swimmers make waves at Scottish Championships
Published 24 Dec 2012 09:30
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GALASHIELS swimmers Beth Johnston and Finlay Lindores have made sure they will be having a golden Christmas following the recent Scottish Junior Championships.
The pool pair compete in the Scottish Disability events.
And out of the five disciplines 11-year-old Beth entered, she set new best times in them all and also won three.
Beth's gold medal haul came from the 25 metre Butterfly, 50 metre Breaststroke and the 50 metre Freestyle finals.
Not to be outdone, training partner Finlay left the Grangemouth pool with two medals from his three races. The 10-year-old smashed his personal best in 25 metre Backstroke for gold, earned a bronze in the 25 metre Freestyle, and narrowly missed out on a podium place in the 25 metre Breaststroke, despite setting a new best time.
The dynamic duo are members of the flourishing Scottish Borders Disability Sports Group.
The registered charity was set up to encourage and support disabled people to take part in sport both socially and competitively.
And over the coming year they hope to arrange more events involving swimming, athletics, curling, bowling & vaulting.
Another member of the Group is Hawick's Donald Gray, who has just returned from the DSE Short Course Championships in Sheffield with his own bag of medals.
The 15-year-old lifted gold in both the 200 metre Freestyle and 200 metres Individual Medley Relay as well as silvers in the 100 metre Breaststroke and 100 metre Individual Medley.
Amongst the latest members of the Borders Disability Sports Group is wheelchair sensation Samantha Kinghorn.
The 16-year-old from Gordon has already qualified for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
And it is hoped many more youngsters will join the Group during 2013.
A spokeswoman for BDSG told the Border Telegraph: "We have a Development Officer in post and our hope and plan is to help more adults and children to enjoy a wider range of sports within the Borders region. At present more opportunities are in the Lothians or beyond, we need more opportunities here.
"We are in the process of building up a database of people from within the Scottish Borders who might benefit from our help."
Anyone who would like to get in touch and join the database should e-mail sbdsg@outlook.com
Alternately you can send your details to Dr Cook, SBDSG, Fairview, Nenthorn, Kelso. TD5 7RY.
Disability multi-sports sessions are starting in January at the Queens Centre in Galashiels.
Five events - athletics, boccia, badmington, football and rugby - are on offer on a come and try basis for adults or children with a physical or learning disability.
This article appeared in Border Telegraph 24 Dec 12
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