On Jun 11th we had a large group of athletes travel to South Lake Leisure Centre in Craigavon for the Banbridge Long Course Open Meet. The swimmers who attended on the day were Aisling Duffy, Ben Duffy, Eimear Duffy, Sean Greenan, Darragh Hughes, Justas Jarusas, Urszula Jarzabek, Adam Lynch, Aoibhín MacCinna, Sean McConnon, Aoife McKenna, Kaelan Morgan, Oisin Rankin, Katherine Ryan, Maddie Smith, Alice Trainor and Edvardas Zumaras.
This gala was the last opportunity to gain Div1 and Div2 times for the Summer National meets and as some of our swimmers were extremely close to the times required, it was a big gala. There were
swimmers attending from all over Northern Ireland as well as swimmers from as far away as Cork, Kilkenny and Limerick.
We had some great performances over the day, we had some medal winners and many large pbs were achieved while some others were a bit disappointed to not quite make the times they were aiming for on the day. A summary of some of the swims follows, though some of our swimmers competed in up to 6 swims at this gala. Darragh Hughes had a great day, coming in first place in the 100Fly, 2 nd in the 200Br and 50Br. Darragh also achieved his Div1 time for the 100fly at this gala. Adam Lynch earned a silver medal in the 200fly and finished 4 th in the 100Bk. He also had a 7 th place finish in the 50fly. Sean Greenan had a great gala, finishing in the top 10 in all three of his swims. In the 400fr he swam a massive 15 second pb to claim his silver medal. He also had big pbs in both the 200IM (7 th ) and the 200Fr where he finished in 5 th place overall. Edvardas Zumaras earned a bronze medal in the 200fly in a brave race
with a big pb at the end. He also finished 7 th in the 400Fr. Justas Jarusas had a great swim with a good pb in the 100Bk, earning him his first Div2 time! He also had a great pb of over 6 seconds in the
200Fr. Aisling Duffy swam a massive pb in 400fr shaving 13 seconds off her previous best time finishing in 11 th place. She also swam well in the 50fly to finish in 14 th place. Ben Duffy was aiming for
his Div1 time in 100fly but did not manage to make it on the day. However, he swam strongly to finish in 5 th place in the 100fly and 7 th place in the 50fly and 10 th in 200Fr. Eimear Duffy had a good
day with two big pbs of 5.5 seconds in 100Fr and 200IM. She finished 8 th in both the 50fly and 100fly. Urszula Jarzabek swam well in her events achieving a pb in 100fr and finishing in 16 th place in 50fly. Aoibhín MacCinna was also aiming for a Div1 time in 100bk at this gala which she unfortunately didn’t make on this occasion, however she finished in 7 th place in both 100fly and 100back with good solid performances. Sean McConnon had a strong swim in 100fr, shaving a nice 5.5 seconds off his previous best time. He had a good swim in the 200Br, finishing in 9 th place overall. Aoife McKenna enjoyed a lovely pb in 200Fr, taking nearly 5 seconds off her time. Aoife finished in 14 th in 100bk after a strong swim. Kaelan Morgan had his first long course gala and he had a good swim in 100fr with a nice pb of 2 seconds. He swam well in the 50fly also and both swims will give him a good experience with racing in a 50m pool. Oisín Rankin swam well in the 100fr gaining a pb of one second in this event. He also had a good 200Br where he finished in 12 th overall. Katherine Ryan had a good swim in the 50Br finishing in 5 th place overall. She gained a nice 3 second pb in 200IM to finish in 18 th overall in a strong swim, winning her heat. Maddie Smith had three top 10 finishes in the three swims she did on the day, finishing in 8 th in the 400Fr, 9 th in the 50Br and 10 th in the 200IM overall. Alice Trainor competed in two events and gained a nice 2 second pb in the 100fr to finish in 19 th overall. She also competed in the 400fr and finished in 10 th place overall.
Its fair to say our athletes swam well overall and Coach Pearse was on hand with his encouragement and feedback to the swimmers both before and after each event. Thanks to Pearse for his hard work in preparing the swimmers for this gala, the pbs that were achieved are a really positive sign that Sliabh Beagh Asc is an improving club and everyone should be very proud of their achievements over the last year.
Thanks to Team Managers Kim Greenan and Carmel Duffy for their help on the day.
Trip to Share Centre Lisnaskea
As an end of season outing our Inter and Senior squads are heading to the Share Centre next
weekend for some fun in the sun (hopefully!). The team will be enjoying the activities the centre has
to offer including the water inflatables and banana boating. We hope you all have a great day.
Div2 and Div1 Summer Nationals training
Training continues for those who have qualified for these galas in July.
Summer break
Most of our squads have now finished up for the summer break. We hope you have a nice rest and
come back ready for action in the not too distant future.