Sport /

Swimmers smash personal bests at Inverness championships

9 December 2025 13:30

A group of teenagers pose for a photo indoors, standing in front of a white artificial Christmas tree and decorations. Most are wearing black and red team shirts.

The Shetland Hurricanes and Delting Dolphins swimmers who went to the Inverness event.

SHETLAND’S swimmers travelled en masse to Inverness at the weekend to compete in the North District age group championships.

Shetland ACSC (Hurricanes) and Delting Dolphins jointly took a team of 17 swimmers, while Lerwick ASC took 12 swimmers down with them.

The young team for Hurricanes and Delting performed very well, coming away with lots of new personal bests (PB).

Fourteen-year-old Julian Okroj led the success, winning gold in seven events and breaking his own Shetland age group records as well as one open record.

Stella Okroj competed in five events, achieving new personal best times in every race, while Astrid Anderson competed in one event only due to injury.

Sofianna Arthur set new best times in all her three events, while Signe Bullough took nearly two seconds off her 100m butterfly PB.

Ruraidh Chittick swam strongly in his programme, setting new best times in four events, while Nicholas Cluness achieved new best times in three of his four swims.

Thirteen young swimmers in blue team shirts pose indoors, holding a large flag featuring sponsor logos, including Shetland Fish Producers Organisation.

The Lerwick ASC swimmers at the meet in Inverness.

James Drakeford set a new time in one of his five events, and Katie Drakeford swam well in both of her events.

Ross Drakeford set new best times in five of his six races, Eve Moncrieff had a busy schedule of eight events and Sophia Cheattle set a new best in her 100m backstroke.

Elsie Peterson impressed by taking 15 seconds off her 200m breaststroke at her first districts and Heidi Simpson also swam well, producing a big PB of nearly 12 seconds in her 200m breaststroke.

Ellie Thompson competed in six events, improving on her entry times in four, and Ella Winks also set new best times in most of her seven races.

For Lerwick ASC, their 12 swimmers set a total of 70 new personal bests across 82 races – with six swimmers setting PBs in every one of their events.

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Calum Preacher set six PBs, including a 7.25-second drop in the 100m butterfly. Lewie Redfern achieved a full set of personal bests, including a massive 30.12-second improvement in the 400m freestyle, while his twin Libby secured seven PBs.

Newcomers Markus Laurenson, Erin MacBeath, Nathan and Jaxon Anderson, and Saoirse Robinson impressed with PBs in all their races, while Lili Szűcs delivered strong performances and significant drops in her 200m backstroke and breaststroke times.

Shetland Hurricanes and Delting Dolphins thanked NorthLink Ferries, ATAS Sport Scotland and the National Lottery Community Fund for their support, while Lerwick ASC thanked L&M Engineering and NorthLink Ferries for sponsorship.