A TEENAGE Garnock Valley swimming sensation made a huge splash by securing major national success.

Rory Dickson from Glengarnock staked his claim to the title of fastest 16-year-old swimmer in Scotland by winning three gold medals at the Scottish National Age Group championships in Glasgow.

Rory triumphed in the ultimate tests of both sprint speed and all-round ability winning the 50m freestyle and the 200m and 400m individual medley titles at Tollcross.

“I’m really happy because I achieved my goals of medalling in every event which has set me in really good stead for the British Summer Championships, he said.

“It was a solid week of swimming and I really enjoyed the atmosphere and swimming against the fastest boys in Scotland, it was all a really good experience and one of the best weeks of swimming you’ll have in a season. I’ve gained a lot of confidence from it and I’m determined to do well at the British.”

The five day event, known as SNAGS, is the pinnacle of the swimming season with hundreds of the best swimmers from across Scotland taking part.

The North Ayrshire Amateur Swimming Club smashed all the targets they had set for themselves returning with 11 medals from 28 finals.

“SNAGs 2018 couldn’t have gone any better for me,” said head coach Ross Douglas. “Last year I set the club three goals. Firstly to have more medals than last year, and we nearly doubled the total.

“The second was to have more swimmers representing us in finals. Last year we had five and this year seven. And the final one was to beat our points total, which we achieved on the third day.

“Rory improved yet again. The shock result was the 50m freestyle. He only entered for a bit of fun and never expected to win it by half a second and put himself in contention to medal in the same race in the British Summer Championships.

Ahead of his 50m final Rory received some tips from close friend, former GB Olympic swimmer Craig Gibbons and this helped inspire him.

Rachael Grant (15) from Beith joined the medal winners on day two of the meet with a terrific swim in the 200m fly which made her the unofficial Scottish champion.

Although she finished second in the race and was officially awarded the silver medal, the swimmer who won the race competes for a club based in Winchester in the south of England, so Rachael can rightly claim to be the fastest 15-year-old for the gruelling event in Scotland.

“Rachael has only been back in the club for a short time but she’s made some great improvements and there’s so much potential for what she can do in the future and I’m really excited by that,” said Ross.

Evan Clark from Stevenston underlined the growing strength in depth among the senior squad as he joined Rory Dickson in finals in the 16-year-old group:

“The meet boosted my confidence because it allowed me to achieve goals I’d set before the competition,” reflected Evan. “There was always a positive feeling on poolside which I think contributed to our success in the pool. The national meet allows us to race against swimmers from other parts of the country who we don’t normally compete against and it was a very successful and positive meet for the club.

"I had a chat with Evan before the meet about what his goals were,” explains Ross Douglas. “I said I thought he should be trying to make as many finals as he possibly could. It was tough, but achievable. He ended up making four finals and he was unfortunate not to make a fifth. It was a proud achievement for him to make that step up at the national level."

Beth Hill from Adrosssan and Rachel McGuire from Saltcoats were making their debut at the national championships as part of the quartet of girls making up the 11 to 13-year-old relay team.

They were in action on the Thursday and Sunday afternoons taking 2.8 sec off their time for the 4x100 medley and then chopping 4.5 secs off their time for the 4x100 free.

Evan Clark and Callum Reid, from Dalry, were in the 14-16 year old boys relay team who had a solid three races, taking ninth in the 4x200m, 11th in the 4x100m and were 13th in the 4x100m medley.

The atmosphere at Tollcross was electric and those who couldn’t make it to Glasgow were able to share the excitement and cheer on the NAASC swimmers in their finals with the evening sessions shown on a live stream on the Scottish Swimming social media channels.

People viewing the sessions will have heard the commentators praising Ross Douglas as one of the top young coaches in Scotland.

“The club being mentioned in the commentary on the live stream video so many times isn’t a coincidence. It’s because people are starting to realise that there’s something happening down in North Ayrshire," Ross said.

He also paid tribute to Alan Dickson from Glengarnock, who as well as being Rory’s father is the coach of the junior squad at the club.