NORTH Ayrshire ASC talisman Rory Dickson, from Glengarnock took home one of each colour, dominating the 400m IM for the 16 and overs and winning by three and a half seconds at the West District Long Course Championships in East Kilbride.

The event feature the fastest young swimmers in the west of Scotland, from Dumfries to Grangemouth.

Rory, who will be competing in the British Championships in Edinburgh next month, had to settle for second in the 100m Free and took third in the 100m Breast Stroke but took over three seconds off the time he set in the heats.

Rachel McGuire from Saltcoats helped to make it a very successful 1st session for the club taking third place in the 100m Fly for 12-year olds.

Then Rachel had the agony of a fourth place finish in the 100m Free by an even narrower margin of two hundredths of a second.

James Stuart from Dalry was also delighted to make the final of the 400m Free for 11-year olds taking almost 18 seconds off his entry time.

Head Coach Ross Douglas pointed to their swims as some of his highlights of the meet: “I was really proud of the younger swimmers in the club like Rachel and James.

“The real positive,” says Ross, “was that they swam fast to make finals, and then in the finals all of them went faster, which for me is the only goal you should ever have in that situation. If you do that then you’re going to give yourself a chance to win a medal.”

“For the older swimmers the priority was to be workmanlike and get in and race. Rory even trained on Saturday morning and then raced in the afternoon. But the real focus for me was on the wee ones and how they stepped up. It was a really positive meet with PB’s all over the place.”