Swim Ireland David McCullough International Meet
This swim meet took place last Thursday through to Sunday in the Bangor Aurora Complex. The entry had swimmers from all over the UK and Ireland. The big name entry was Adam Peaty. Adam is the Olympic, European and World champion for the 50 and 100m Breaststroke events since 2014. Unbeaten!!
Sliabh Beagh swimmers entered were John Donnolly, Matthew Skeath, Faolan Campbell, Kyle Crean McKenna, Adam Lynch and Darragh Hughes.
Great excitement buzzed around the complex when Peaty was in action. His performances did not disappoint. He won the 50 and 100 Breaststroke events. He did not have it all his own way as Irish swimmer Darragh Green, and Scottish swimmer Ross Murdock pushed him all the way.
Other swimmers to impress were from James Williby (Chelsea and Kensington), Siobhan Marie O’Connor (Loughborough), Danielle Hill (Larne), Mona McSharry (Marlins), Calum Bain (Cookstown) and Conor Ferguson.
Our swimmers to a man set PBs. Performances were robust, experimental, showed progress and for the younger swimmers it was a great experience. This was a great opportunity to see world class swimmers in action and to see them doing the technical stuff as well as seeing their speed, power and body structure.
From a coaching perspective, it was also interesting to see these world class athletes attend to their hydration, meal plan and warm up and warm down routines. It was also refreshing to see the humility of these people as many were bombarded with requests for photographs, hand shaking and bits of advice and encouragement by swimmers, parents, coaches and officials.
In summary Darragh made the Junior Final in the 200IM and 200 Breaststroke. His best finish was 4th, but it was with a huge PB.
Adam swam the 50 butterfly. It was his first step at this level. He was surrounded by very strong swimmers and keeping your head when these top class swimmers take off is in itself a challenge. Well done Adam.
Kyle swam the 50, 100 and 200m Breaststroke. He set PBs in all swims and he learned that he has a few areas to work on, that are worth paying attention to, for continued progress and possible success.
Faolan swam the 50 Backstroke. This is all about going as hard as you can blind. Faolan has become a very good backcrawl swimmer and he only has a few European finalists to beat in the next wee while.
Matthew took on the 50 Breaststroke event. He swam this race very well and despite missing some training due to Leaving Cert studies, he performed exceptionally well from start to touch.
John swam the 50 and 100 Breaststroke and the 50 Freestyle events. PBs were returned and while no final place was achieved, he did have the opportunity to chat with Mr. Peaty and to be up close to and get some advice on S&C that today is vital in top flight competition preparation, even in swimming.
