Swim Uster Summer Qualifying Meet

20 swimmers competed at the last qualifying gala of the year being run by Swim Ulster this season.

This was a long course meet and provided an opportunity for swimmers to achieve qualifying times for Irish Age Goups in the summer.

For some this was their 1st qualifying gala having graduated from the development series.

Day 1

Four club members started the 800 free in the 1st session and every one of them recorded lifetime best swims and picked up the gold in their individual age groups. (Amy McCullough took an incredible 1 in 45 sec off her entry time)

Day 2
There were 26 swims on the 2nd day of the meet spread across 2 sessions. 22 Personal Bests, 5 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze.

Special mention reserved for Luke Caldwell competing in his 1st Qualifying Meet and picking up a load of personal bests and a few medals.

Day 3

39 swims 33 personal best time 7 gold 1 silver & 3 bronze. Yan Manilili took home a bag full of gold medals today and qualifying for Div 2 in almost everything (as well as keeping us entertained with his rapping…….that’s right RAPPING!!!!)

The skills on display across the whole team really impressed me. The commitment to working the underwater phase of the race was very commendible and while there is always room for improvement this is unrecognisable from a year ago.

Well done everyone on a great weekends work.

Next up we have the Aquasprint final and the Bangor open meet in June.

Till next time

P

Aquasprint roundup

On Sunday afternoon the junior club traveled to Lisburn, for the final aquasprint gala of the group stage.

Unfortunately Lisburn finished with more points than us but the atmosphere was fantastic there was lots of support from the gallery and the kids had fun.

Most kids produced pb’s and there was a very definite improvement in all swimmers from their very first aquasprint before christmas, which can easily be seen in the quick starts and underwater work.

A special mention need to got to Louisa Humphries, A group girl our only swimmer to win all 4 races! 

The Aquasprint season finishes with a series of finals held on friday the 3rd of June. These last gala decide the promotion/relegation/championship results for the whole year.

We are in the ‘B’ final of Division 1 and if we are to stay in the top division we are really going to have to have the whole team rurn out and swim incredibly well.

Obviously this is a very exciting gala ans we could like to see as much support as possible, red balloons, red t-shirt and anything red. 

We will let you know the venue as soon as possible.

Maria (girls team captain)

Ards Sprints

Ards Open Gala
Saturday 14th May 2016

The club sent a team of 19 swimmers to Ards on Saturday to compete in the Ards Junior Open.

This is a fantastic annual event held at the start of every summer comprising 4 x 25 and 100 IM for the junior sage groups and the 4 x 50 plus the 100 IM for the older swimmers.

Overall the team recorded 25 personal best times and picked up a number of medals

Special mention for

Anna Campbell – Gold in 100 Back & Free Silver in 100 FLY PBs in all events including 200 IM
Monica Del Castillo – Gold in 200 IM Bronze in 100 BRS which was also a PB
Olivia Stewart – Bronze in 100 IM PBs in 100 BRS & 100FR & 200 IM

Fiona

Londons Calling

2016 EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Monday, May 16, 2016 to Sunday, May 22, 2016
London Aquatics Centre
General meet information is available from Championship Central
The meet is being streamed live and can be watched here – Live Stream

Ireland are sending a team of 12 athletes to compete in this event. Larne S.C. are providing 2 of them. Danielle Hill is racing all week while Conor Ferguson has a whistlestop meet flying in for the 100BC on Monday.

This is a senior international meet and the clubs national record holders will be brushing shoulders wirh some of the elite of European Swimming. Danielle will be in the same events as Hungary’s prolific Katinka Hosszu the 100 back & 200 back. (I still want that photo btw D)

The 2016 European Championships consists of swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming competitions.

The swimming portion will take place from Monday, May 16 to Sunday, May 22. There are 42 swimming events scheduled, 34 individual events and eight relays.

The Irish mens 4 x 100 Medley relay are hoping to make history and stake a claim for a place on the blocks in Rio later this summer. This would be the 1st Irish relay team ever to do so.

The format of the event is as follows:-

There are heats, semi-finals and finals for every individual event apart from the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events and the 400m individual medley, In these events the eight fastest from the heats qualify for the final.

In the other events, the 16 fastest swimmers from the heats progress to the semi-finals, then the first two finishers in each semi-final, plus the swimmers with the next four fastest times, progress to the final.

Nations are allowed to enter up to four athletes per individual event at the London 2016 LEN European Aquatics Championships but only two are allowed to progress out of the heats.

Development Meet 4 – Larne

After the excitment of last weeks Irish Nationals it was the Clubs junior athletes who took to the water this weekend in the 4th Swim Ulster Development Gala of the season.

The purpose of these meets is 2 fold.

1. To provide a stepping stone into regional swimming competition from club based racing

And

2. To provide an opportunity for qualification for Ulster and Irish Age group level meets.

The morning session Matthew Allen (a huge 40sec PB) Sam Magee and Jacob Charlton (20 sec PB) all raced in the 100IM then Sam (1sec PB) & Jacob (3sec PB) contested the 100BC where they wer joined by Christopher Fulton and Jack Wallace.

(Report on session 2 to follow)

Irish National Championships

From the 28th – 31st April 396 swimmers from all over the world converged on the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin for The Irish National Swimming Championships.

Larne SC sent a small contingent of 4 swimmers hoping to make some waves in the meet.

Day one

Danielle Hill and Conor Ferguson start things off today with the 100 BC, an event that neither swimmers is a stranger to(both are Irish Junior record holder in this event)
The heats in the morning saw both easily qualify for the semi finals later with easy, both qualifying in 2nd place Danielle qualifying as the fastest Irish swimmer.

The semi finals saw both swimmers improve on their heats and qualify for the finals.

Day two

Heats on Day 2 and Danielle was the only Larne swimmer involved cruising to her best ever morning swim to qualify for the semi final of the 100 Free. In the finals session the sparks really started to fly with Danielle stepping up and qualifying for the final of the 100 FS before Conor went in the 100 BC. The roof lifted off the building as the crowd roared their support for him and it so nearly paid off as he came agonisingly close to qualifying for the Rio Olympic Games missing out by 0.05 of a second. Danielle followed him up in the same event once again proving her dominance in the backstroke events by winning her 1st Irish title of the weekend.

Day three

Day 3 and Conor Brines and Lui Hurson joined the party. Lui swimming his 2nd fastest 400FS before Conor posted his fastest ever morning swim in the 100 FLY.
Our very own Iron Lady stepped up again and cruised to the 200 BC final.

The finals session on Day 3 got underway with Conor Brines in the semi of the fly. He continued his incredible rise this season posting a new Ulster senior record and showing that he is the form swimmer in Ireland on this event.
Danielle claimed her 1st 100 FS Irish title and her 2nd of the meet in a new personal best time but wasn’t finished there as she swam completed the days swimming with her 3rd title out of 3 entries in the 200 BC.

Day four

1st up on the last day of the meet was Lui in the 200IM out in lane 9 in the last heat he swam to his entry time in a solid performance at his 1st Irish LC Nationals.

The #Nornironlady stepped up with 50FS and 50 BC within 5 minutes of each other. The short turnaround proved to be no problem as Danielle set about qualifying as the fastest Irish swimmer for both events.

The last session of the meet and Danielle again sets the tone with back to back semi finals in BC and FS making the final in both.

The last 3 events of the meet saw Danielle go in the 50 BC making is a #fantastic4 with another Irish Title. Next up Conor Brines in the 100 FLY and he repeated the result from Dave McCullagh with a silver medal behind national record holder Breandan Hylands (his 1st medal at a national level in this event). Danielle brought the curtain down on a great  meet for the club with the fjnal of the 50 FS not quite 10 minutes after the 50 back finished with a credible 4th placed finish.

Larne may well have only travelled with a small team to this meet but our strike rate was incredible

4 swimmers
4 Irish titles
1 silver
1 Irish Senior Record
2 Ulster Senior Records
1 Ulster Junior Record

What a great few days well done everyone

P