FIVE of North Ayrshire Amateur Swimming Club’s senior swimmers recently represented the club at the Scottish Short Course Championships at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

This is a very prestigious event which attracts world class swimmers such as Ross Murdoch and Michael Jamieson.

The North Ayrshire swimmers acquitted themselves very well with 17-year-old Ross Hughes and 14-year-old Emma Scully reaching finals.

There were a good number of personal best swims.

The full team for the event was: Ross Hughes (17), Emma Scully (14), Conor Tarran (14), John Wright (18) and Adam Kirkwood (16).

Four Junior swimmers took part in the Cumbernauld Christmas sprints on Saturday. December 19 at the Tryst Leisure Centre in Cumbernauld.

The North Ayrshire swimmers had 15 swims and achieved an excellent 13 personal best times between them.

Karen Downie (10) from Ardrossan) had good swims in both back crawl and free and also achieved personal best times in fly and free while Evie Allan (8) from Dalry, swimming in only her second gala achieved excellent personal bests in all four strokes.

Molly Sutherland (9 ) of Beith performed well fly and also in breast stroke where she took five seconds off her personal best time. Isla Waller (8 )from Largs finished as fastest 8 year old in fly and free.

ALL roads lead to Ayr Racecourse this weekend for the traditional New Year meeting.

The 32Red Raceday takes place this coming Saturday, January 2.

The action gets underway at 12.20pm with the Maiden Hurdle over two miles four furlongs which will see some promising young horses competing.

Leading stables from the north will be represented throughout the afternoon when the two principal races are the Handicap Hurdle at 3.15pm and the £10 Free Handicap Chase at 2.40 pm. Both these races will be screened live on Channel 4 Racing.

The £20,000 Handicap Hurdle is a Class 2 contest over two mile five furlongs while the £10 Free Handicap Chase has a £15,000 prize fund and is a three mile handicap chase.

The final race of the day is the Standard Open National Hunt flat race at 3.45pm.