Day 3, Saturday and we are half way there. The girls 400m free is the first event and Aer Lingus have three swimmers in the final. Tara English proves to the quickest of our swimmers in this one and takes the bronze. Not to be outdone, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Club captain Gavin Truman steps up and takes gold in the u/16 boys 400 Free, a triumph for hard work and persistence as he said himself!
In the 200 back, Wendy O’Neill takes bronze. One of the races of weekend was about to take place. Templeogue fresh from winning the 4 x 100 metre freestyle in a record breaking time, where lining up a possible double by taking the 4 x 100 IM relay title from the current champions and junior record holders Aer Lingus. Something had to give and what took place was truly memorable. A speech from Alan beforehand settled some nerves, but the tension was palpable, (and the was just in the balcony).
Tara led them off with an inspiring 100m backstroke, Catrina continued her fine form for the breast stroke, Sarah maintained their position giving her all in the fly leg, Rachel went into the water with a slight lead and stayed ahead right to the end. All four girls swam to their optimum, giving it everything and got to the wall less than a second ahead of Templeogue, with both teams inside the old record by over 2 seconds.
The smiles at the end of such a race are what it is all about, the early mornings, the hard work, the injuries, the pain, all forgotten as the girls basked in the glory of setting a new Irish Junior record and winning the 4 x 100 IM title for the second year running.
To end the evening, the senior girls took bronze in their event and the u/16 boys took silver.
Sunday and the end is nigh, Wendy O’Neill takes silver in the women’s 800 meters, Catrina picks up another gold in the 200 IM, and Gavin’s weekend continues to bear fruit with a silver in the boys 200 IM. Catrina entered the pool again for the 200m Breast as hot favourite and duly delivered the gold. Barry Murphy ended Aer Lingus’s interest in the competition with another gold in the 50m freestyle, winning impressively.
What a weekend, everyone ended the weekend exhausted but that is not the end of the story, Barry and the rest of the Irish team, including Andrew Meegan; depart from Dublin to a training camp in Slovenia in preparation for the European Championships.
Catrina, Gavin, Conor, Sean, and Sarah have to continue training, preparing for the British Age Group competition, whilst Rachel, Aisling, and the 3 boys mentioned above are travelling to the UK Schools in early September, so unfortunately no rest for the wicked.
Special mention to Ellen Keane, who will represent Ireland at the International Paralympic Games (IPC). The event is being held in Eindhoven, Holland and runs from the 15-25 August.
So to close, congratulations to Alan Turner for preparing his swimmers so well, well done to all those who competed, if I mentioned all of the PB’s that where achieved I’d be typing for another 4 hours.
Well done to the parents who participated in timekeeping, turn judges or one of the many other jobs that have to be performed to make these events run efficiently.
And from the swimmers, thank you Mammy…!
Article courtesy of: Paul Nevins
THAKS PAUL FOR SAVING ME A BIG WRITE UP ABOUT THE WEEKEND. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL SWIMMERS ON THEIR FINE PERFORMANCES OVER THE WEEKEND,MAY IT CONTINUE INTO THE SHORT COURSE SEASON, ENJOY YOUR BREAK.
break??? what break?? some of us are back already
takes us old people longer to get fit again!!
ah niamh you have had a lot of breaks this year, .