Close encounter in Dungannon at PTL Gala

We had the last of the PTL galas on Saturday 28th January in
Dungannon.   Sliabh Beagh and Dungannon SC were both going into
this gala looking for the win and it had promised to be a very tight
competition.   And, so it was.   Our ‘A’ girls excelled in their races,
winning all the events, as did our ‘D’ boys.  For the other groups it
was a mixed bag of very tight races in some instances, so it was not
clear throughout the gala who would come out as winners in the
end.  Unfortunately for Sliabh Beagh, we lost out by a very small point margin and Dungannon are the team who will move to the next
division.

Terrific performances from our swimmers who fought hard
to the bitter end but unfortunately just lost out.   We thank
Dungannon SC for the great gala, the lovely refreshments, friendly
welcome and we wish them the best of luck for the rest of the
season.
Thanks to all the coaches and parents who helped on the day.

Swim Ulster Senior Schools gala

Sixteen of our swimmers attended this gala on Saturday last to swim
on behalf of their schools.

Sean Greenan was swimming for his school, Beech Hill College.
Representing St. Macartans College were Adam Lynch, Ben Duffy,
Matthew McQuaid, Justas Jarusas and Ridas Zelvvs.  Swimming for
Our Ladys, Castelblayney were Riya George and Tagdh Lennon.
Eimear Duffy was representing St Louis, Monaghan.  Edvardas
Zumaras swam for Ballybay Community College.   Representing
Colaiste Oiriall were Aoife McKenna, Aoibhín MacCinna, Matthew
Mohan and Sophie Neeson.   Katherine Ryan was swimming on behalf of the Royal School in Dungannon and Rebekah Gillis was swimming for her school, Aughnacloy College.

Our swimmers had a good day overall and it is always a special day to swim for your school as these opportunities do not arise often in this sport.  So, it is always nice that the schools recognise the hard work these teenagers put in to their swimming, so they can compete at this level.  More than 830 young people from 121 schools took part in this meet, so it is a very large and eagerly anticipated event in the swimming calendar.

Despite the large number of swimmers involved, we did come home
with one medal, silver for Sean Greenan in 200IM.  Sean also got 4th in the 100Brs event.  A terrific achievement for this young man
swimming for Beech Hill College.   Well done Sean.

We had some other notable performances, Adam Lynch swimming
for the Sem, made the 100Fly final finishing 8th and he finished 7th in the 200IM, a good day for Adam.
Rebekah Gillis swam for Aughnacloy College and finished in 7th place in the 100Brs final, also a great day for Rebekah. She also finished 13th in 100bk.
Tadgh Lennon swimming for Our Ladys, Blayney, also made the
100bk final and finished in 9th place overall.  Well done Tadgh.  We had great personal best times recorded on the day also and we
had many swimmers placing in the top twenty.   Justas was unlucky to make the final in 100bk, finishing 11th overall and 14th in the 200IM.  Katherine finished 13th in the 100Brs and 18th in the 200IM with big PB times.   Riya had a strong 100fly swim, finishing in 17th place.  Aoibhín finished in 14th in 100bk and 19th in 100fr.  Ben finished in 19th place in 100fly and Eimear finished in 20th in 100fly.

Well done to everyone, we know some people have been sick in the
run up to this gala and were not on top form, but everyone gave it
their best shot.

Arena Lisbon International Swim Meet

Adam Lynch and Darragh Hughes will be attending this meet in
Jamor, Lisbon, Portugal on the 11th and 12th of February.

We wish the two boys the best of luck in this international competition and we know the hard work they have put in to their training will pay off for them.

We had six swimmers attend this gala in the National Aquatic Centre on Saturday last.   Swimmers who attended were Aoibhín, Rebekah, Adam, Darragh,  Edvardas and Sean.  The races were long
course which means the swimmers are in the long pool 50m as opposed to 25m.   We had a mixed bag of results, with the swim of the day going to 14 year old Sean Greenan who swam with a big
personal best time to claim a bronze medal in the 800free race.  This was a great end to a long day for Sean who also achieved nice PBS in his other swims.  Darragh was close to medalling on a few
occasions with him placing 4th in 100brs, 4th in 50brs and 4th in 100fly events.

Some of our swimmers achieved new personal best times and for some it was their first attempt at long course in certain
events which is always a learning experience.  We know the swimmers will work hard to build on this experience as we go onwards through the season.

Well done everyone and thanks to Coach Pearse for attending on the day.

As we start a new Calendar Year, we would like to take a look back on 2022 and what a success it has been for our Club.   After 2 years of COVID disruption leading to reduced training and minimal
competitions, we certainly took every opportunity to shine!

2nd place for our Aquasprint Team – swimmers aged from 8 years to 13 years swam their heart out for our club over 4 competitions with other Clubs.  For many this was their 1st experience of competitive swimming.

12 Swimmers from our Senior and Intermediate Squads qualified for the 2 Summer Nationals Competitions in July.  They competed in 42 Races, achieved 32 P.B.’s, qualified in 17 Finals and received medals in 8 of those.

Over 50 new members to the Club starting out on their swimming journey!!

This success is down to everyone involved in the Club – the Parents, the Coaches, the Committee and most importantly the Swimmers themselves.  The Club is nothing without each and every one of
these playing their part.

Sliabh Beagh ASC would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors and grant providers for their support throughout the year and we look forward to your continued support.

All icy roads led to Coral Leisure on Sunday 11th December for our Winter gala.  Swimming Clubs that attended were Dungannon Swimming Club, Larne ASC, Enniskillen Lakelanders, Swilly Seals, Ballyshannon Marlins, East Cavan Swim Club, Drogheda Swimming Club, Newry Swimming Club and Riversdale Otters.

The gala ran off in two sessions, with the older swimmers in the morning and the younger in the afternoon.
Our special guest was Olympian Andrew Bree who is a double Olympian (2000 and 2008) and an Irish National swimming broadcaster.  He also holds Irish national records for swimming. We handed him a mic and he acted as commentator for the gala which added a bit of excitement for the swimmers.  Let’s just say he was fantastic in this role and we are very grateful to him for giving up his time on Sunday.

The gala ran off very smoothly with lots of exciting and close races. We had lots of medal success and personal best times achieved. The relays at the start and end of the gala proved to be a great hit
with lots of rivalry between the various clubs involved.  Our swimmers performed well, they should be very proud of themselves. We hope the swimmers who had to pull out at the last minute due to
illness are on the road to recovery.

We could not run this gala without the massive amount of help we received from our entire swimming community from Head Coach Pearse McGuigan who made it happen along with the Committee members Louise, Kim, Aoife, Sylvia and Claire, our other coaches, to the parents who came in the evening before to set up the shop and get the deck ready and pool set up,  you know who you are, thank you so much.   To our timekeepers, shop workers, team managers, runners, to the ladies on the desk, we couldn’t have done it without all this help.  To those who helped afterwards putting the pool back to normal, thank you.

Thanks to the staff of Coral leisure for facilitating our gala, as always, very supportive of our Club.