On Sunday a group of 12 Enniskillen Lakelanders attended the inaugural Bangor Long Course Championships at the new 50m Bangor Aurora – North Down’s new flagship aquatic and leisure complex situated in the heart of Bangor. The pool element is a 2012 Olympic-legacy fund for Northern Ireland.
The nine girls and three boys participated in a total of 14 separate events and achieved three Gold medals, one Silver medal and a Bronze medal along with a number of personal bests.
Owen Smyth bettered his entry time by 12.65s in the 200m freestyle when he was the first Lakelander into competitive action. A strong first 50m in the 200m breaststroke saw Owen first home in his heat in a time of 3.50.28 before rounding off a busy morning with a time of 1.45.68 in the 100m backstroke. 11 year old Lewis McCartney swam in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. In the 100m Lewis finished 4th in the heat and 10th overall slicing 7 seconds of his previous personal best, leaving him just under a second from a qualifying time. In the 200m he also set a new best ever time of 3mins 56seconds – again less than a second from a qualifying time when converted to Short Course times.
Oisin McManus went into the Bangor meet having never raced in a 50m pool but quickly settled down on the 200m freestyle with a heat win and a personal best of 2.50:97, this was a 19s improvement on his training. The 200m breaststroke was Oisin’s next race and despite being a recent convert to the breast stroke he took 3rd place in his heat and 6th place overall in his age group. The 100m Freestyle saw Oisin back in his favourite stroke and he romped home with a comfortable heat win that shaved over 7 seconds of his previous best time and improved his ranking from 10th place going into the race, to 7th place overall.
Finally on the last race of the whole event Oisin was the sole remaining Enniskillen participant in the boys 200m IM. Oisin lined up against 13 – 14 and 15 year olds managed 10th place overall in his group. Oisin came away from the day without a medal but with enough pride in his performance to spur him on to better training and higher achievements in the future.
Caitlin Martin made 2 Long Course Personal Bests in her first swim in a 50m pool, 200m Backstroke, making a time of 3:07:30 and 200m Individual Medley, making a time of 3:19:10 (almost 2 seconds). Laura Mc Caffrey entered the 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke and was delighted with her achievements as she obtained two Development qualifying times and two Personal Bests – dropping 8.69 seconds and almost 2 seconds respectively. Rachel Evans had 3 strong events during the day and narrowly missed out on her 100m Freestyle Qualifying time by less than 1 second.
Aimee Fitzpatrick improved on her seeded place and took 2.21 seconds of her best ever time in the 100m Freestyle. She justified her seeding in the 200m breaststroke and improved by 5 placings in the 200m Freestyle again knocking more than 2 seconds of her previous best. Molly Flynn swam respectable time in the 100 metre Breaststroke coming in at 1.36.42. She then swam in the 100 metre Freestyle, an event that she has just come back to after an absence of a number of years.
She made a great time coming in at 1.15.88, a Personal Best for a 50 meter pool. Sorcha Lavelle aged 12 was also swimming in her First Long Course Competition and had a Fantastic start to her day achieving Two Irish Division 2 Times in both her 100m Breast + 200m Breaststroke with Personal Best Times of 1.40.44 and 3.36.49 showing that her hard work at training is paying off for her. She also competed in the 100m Backstroke making a time of 1.33.19 and 100m Freestyle with at time 1.22.84. Also with a number of Division 2 times, Caitlin Love improved her time in 100m Breaststroke and also competed well in the 200m Breaststroke and the 100m Backstroke.
Méabh Dolan (10) swam in her first long course competition and achieved a brilliant 200 freestyle in 3:05:36 improving on her previous by more than 8 seconds, gaining a Bronze medal in this competitive event with 15 swimmers. Méabh then went on to finish in the top ten of the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:40:85. Recent long course training in Majorca has proven to be of great benefit to these young swimmers and Méabh looks forward to building on these times in Lisburn on 21st June.
The oldest Lakelander was Natasha Love (15) who has already qualified with Division one times. Tasha finished 5th in the 200m Individual Medley and improved her time by almost 2 seconds. She also took silver in the 200m Backstroke in a field of 13 swimmers. The popular Enniskillen swimmer kept the best until last with a fantastic swim in the 100m Backstroke finishing 1st with a two second lead and a time of 1:13.39 to lift Gold.
The youngest swimmer was 9 year old Ellie McCartney who competed in her first Long Course race and her first Swim Ulster gala for qualifying times. The novice improved her 100m Freestyle time to finish 8th overall out of 20. She also took 7th in 100m Backstroke dropping 0.5 second and improving her seeding position. Ellie had a terrific 100m Breaststroke to obtain not only an Ulster Qualifying time but also an Irish Division 2 time and the Gold Medal for 1st place. In the 200m Breaststroke Ellie’s time of 3:38.18 was almost 20 seconds better than her nearest rival in the 9 and under section. This was rewarded with a 2nd Gold Medal and another Irish Division 2 time allowing her entry to the National Championships in Limerick at the end of the month. The Lakelanders will have a good representation at these Championships with Caitlin and Natasha Love, Caitlin Martin, Sorcha Lavelle and Molly and Annie Flynn also attending.
This week the club’s thoughts turn to the Final of the Swim Ulster Forest Feast AquaSprints that take place in Dungannon on Friday night. The Club has picked it’s strongest team and are looking forward to competing against Breifne and Armagh to see who moves up to Division C.
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