[Lifesaving] Scottish Short Course Speeds 2013

I spent today taking part in a slightly different form of lifesaving sport. Rather than the SERC-based experience of BULSCA events, this was a speed lifesaving, which is a very different beast. The competitions are basically rather odd swimming galas, with individual and relay events in a range of disciplines. Rather than different strokes though, the events use different skills.

The Scottish Short Course Speeds are run to the RLSS’s short course rules, and all of the events are therefore half-distance compared to their standard, long-course versions. This is good for me, as I’m definitely more of a sprinter than an endurance swimmer, but sadly there are no rope throw events.

In the 2012 event I did well enough to earn two bronze medals and a silver medal.  This year, unfortunately, didn’t go quite so well.

I compete in the Male Open category, and this year there were 6 of us looking to win some medals. I decided to enter all of the individual events, and on the day managed to wrangle my way into a relay team consisting of a random assortment of swimmers, including two boys from the younger age categories who were rather fast! Sadly there were no medals for those

My lack of training time really showed. I didn’t take my kit home with me over Christmas, and I was also very lazy when I got back to St Andrews. What with the exam season bringing a halt to our training before Christmas as well, I’d basically had two months with no swimming. The only preparation I had was the Warwick University competition the previous weekend, and one fitness session in the first week back.

This is a pretty accurate representation of my preparation for this competition! (Credit: azymanbbq.tripod.com)

My times reflected that lack of preparation. How I was 3 seconds slower over the 50m Rescue Medley event compared to 2012 I don’t really know, but both my front crawl and my to stroke seemed slower than last year. That’s something that I’ve noticed before this academic year actually, as at the BULSCA events my swim-tow seems to be even slower than last year. Part of it is me getting old, but I think that a relatively lazy summer had a deleterious effect.

My only medal, a bronze, came in the 100m superlifesaver. I love this event, as it tests a lot of different skills, but the 200m one really takes it out of me. 100m is much better! I was behind for the first half of the race, but made up a lot of time on the change to fins and the manikin pickup, both of which went as smoothly as I could have hoped.

Collecting my medal for the superlifesaver. A much better event at 100m! (Credit: Robyn Ireland)

I was very close to getting 3^rd in the 50m tow with fins as well, losing out by only half a second. I think that my new fins worked against me here, and if I still had my old paid I’d have been closer I think.

All in all it was a fun day, but it did prove (again) that I need to train more often if I want to do well!