The 1st weekend in June and the window for qualification for the summer nationals is closing.
With entries already in for the Age Groups in Limerick, only results from this meet and Banbridge next weekend can be added now.
21 swimmers from #teamlarne joined a multitude of others seeking to extend their season into July.
4 sessions over 2 days on the hottest weekend of the year – where else would anyone rather be 🥵
Session one
With 18 swims ranging from 50 back to 200 IM. Larne members produced 10 new PBs, 6 top 10 finishes and a silver 🥈
Session two
Only 6 swims in session 2 but 2 of them 1st time 800 efforts. Congratulations Mia Grills gaining another consideration time for the Summer in 800 free this time
3 PBs and a Gold 🥇 for Éle in 50 fly rounded off the day.
Back in the day (maybe 20 years ago) Larne Swimming Club hosted a traditional curtain raiser to the season.
It was an opportunity for swimmers to dust off the cobwebs and have some fun early each year.
Take your marks…….
This year we took the decision to resurrect this name from the past.
We made a few changes to the original format and switched to a junior meet however the principle was the same, the swim fast blow off the cobwebs anf have some fun.
On the 2nd or November the 1st Larne Sprints in 20 years took place in Larne Leisure center.
19 clubs from across the province entered over 300 swimmers for a combined 1250 swims.
larne sprints 2019
We were incredible grateful to receive local sponsorship from Lidl, Subway Dominos, Woodside and our main sponsor Allsop.
The 1st session comprised of 25m swims in all strokes and was for swimmers 10years and under. Giving these young athletes their 1st experience of the competitive environment is a vital part of their education. Making sure that this experience is enjoyable and rewarding is essential and thanks to the efforts of the committee and parents and especially the older swimmers from the national squad everyone left the pool with a smile on their faces.
Main club sponsor – Allsop
The 2nd part of the day was for the older athletes with the under 15 age taking over. For many this was a last opportunity to qualify for the upcoming Ulster Short Course Championships.
With some fantastic racing and a huge number of PBs this meet will become a fixture in the Swim Ulster Calendar over the next few years.
The results for the meet are available on meet mobile (search – Larne Sprints & Larne Sprints Minor)
I will update this with a link to those when I figure out how to LoL
One of the most please aspects of the weekend for me was seeing #teamlarne in action. All our junior swimmers being supported by our international and national level athletes is what this whole thing is about. #oneclub
We celebrate everyone success together from 25m PBs to international selection
Glasgow, Scotland, hosts the 20th edition of the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships in Tollcross International Swimming Centre between 4-8 December 2019.
Swim Ireland are sending a team of 11 senior athletes and 8 juniors to compete in the 1st international meet of the year
#teamlarne would like to congratulate Danielle Hill and Conor Ferguson on their selection for the senior team.
Danielle will race in the 4 events she broke Irsh Senior Records in in the ISO the 50 & 100BC and 50 & 100 FS
Conor will race the 50 & 100 BC (events he is the Ulster Senior Record Holder in)
The team travel to Glasgow on Monday 2nd December and racing starts on the 4th
Keep an eye on the Facebook page for live links etc
The ‘season proper’ finally got underway this weekend with the 1st Regional Qualifier for #teamlarne.
Swimmers who were looking for qualifying times for Ulster Championships (or simply wanting to get the 1st races if the season under their belt) descended on Lisburn Leisureplex for 2 days of racing.
After 8 weeks of training, working on improving some skills and some base aerobic training it is good to see that some of the work that has been laid down has started to pay off.
Session 1
14 swims, 11 PBs.
Special mention for Zara who PB’d at 200 and400 meter marks of her 800.
Ulster SC Qualifying times for
James Strutt – 200FS
Luke McKillion – 200BRS
Louisa & Amy Humphries – 50BC
Charlotte Smyth & Rhianna Taylor – 800FS
Session 2
15 swims, 7 PBs
A shout out to Ellen Millar swimming her 1st 400IM and doing a fantastic job
Swim Ulster SC Consideration times for
Lucy McKnight & Amy Humphries – 100FS
Ellen Millar – 400IM
Amy McCullough – 50FLY
Swim Ulster Qualification Times for
Ellie Falls – 50FLY & 100FS
Giulia Allen – 50 FLY
Amy Humphries & Lucy McKnight – 200BC
Session 3
13 swims, 5PBs
Best swim of the session for Ellie Falls in 200FS
And a special mention to Eve McKeown swimming her 1st qualifying gala.
Ulster Short Course Qualifying times for
Sophie Doran, Ellen Millar & Ellie Falls – 100FS
Louisa & Amy Humphries & Lucy McK ight – 100 BC
Session 4
Conor Ferguson swimming his 1st meet for #teamlarne with a 1:58 in 200BC
17 swims, 9 PBs
Swim Ulster Qualifying times for
Jamie Clements & James Strutt – 100FS
Charlotte Smyth & Rhianna Taylor – 400FS
Ellie Falls – 100FLY
Conor Ferguson – 200BC
Sophie Doran, Amy Humphries & Ellie Falls – 50FS
Jamie Clements – 100IM
🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇
🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈
🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉🥉
Well done everyone on a great start to the season.
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
This weekend seeing Larne Leisure Centre host the 1st Gaelectric Antrim Championships. The meet takes place over two days and 4 sessions. The highlight being the ‘skins’ events at the end of each session offering £100 for the win.
Over 300 athletes from all over Ireland converge on Larne Leisure Centre, including Irish record holders past and present and Irish Champions, for a couple of days of fun (and hopefully fast) racing.
Those senior Larne swimmers competing in Dublin next weekend at the Irish Nationals will be using this as fine tuning before the last selection meet of the year while younger swimmers will be looking to qualify for Irish Age groups and post Personal Best times.
Day One
The 1st event of the day, the 400 IM, got off to a great start with Amy, Sienna, Anna & Amy B all posting lifetime bests. Jamie Clements followed this up with a PB of his wn in th 200 BC.
The PBs kept falling in the 100 FLY where Amy McCullagh picked up from qualifying for IAG last week by swimming a huge PB.
The junior swimmers from he club took centre stage in the 100 BRS with 8 year old Matthew Allen leading the way. Jamie Clements achieved an IAG QT in his swim.
The Woodside sponsored BRS skins up next and again the junior swimmers performed well and Erin Barr progressed into the final at the end if the session. And in the Men’s Backstroke the home team provided 4 of the 6 finalists with Irish Senior Record Holder Conor Ferguson leading the chasing pack.
The last event of the morning was a marathon 18 heats of 200 free great PBs from Katie McGivern and Holly Woodside got the team off and running before
The noise raised the roof in the skins finals and they home team was well represented in the final stages with 4 Conor Ferguson picking up the winners check and team mate Mark Doherty claiming to runner up spot
Past club Captain Conor Brines kicked off session 2 with a PB in the 200 FLY winning the event with ease before the girls provided any her marathon event in the 200 IM (18 more heats) no fewer than 15 local swimmers competed in this event. Holly Woodside and Siobhan Baine both knocking over 20 seconds off their previous best times.
Seven heats of the men’s 400 free produced personal best performances for everyone and culminated in a closely fought race between David Roberts and Adam Mahood with David narrowly taking the win.
The 200 BRS was dominated by junior athletes with 8 under 12 making up the clubs entry.
The curtain was brought down on the days action with 2 more skins finals. The men’s FLY saw Larne swimmers claim the top 4 spots with Conor Brines just touching out teammate Conor Ferguson in the final shootout while team mate Danielle Hill eased to victory in the 50 Free.
A great atmosphere and some fantastic skills on display today. Can’t wait for day 2
The pool at Bangor Aurora this weekend hosts the annual Swim Ulster Age Group and Youth Championships. 31swimmers from Larne SC are amongst those competing.
This is a 3 day meet with heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon.
44 individual swims resulted in
5 Golds
3 Silver
2 Bronze
21 other to 10 finishes
The highlights of the day where undoubtedly the Golds by Lui in the 400 IM, Anna & Amy in the 800 free and Ben in the 100 BRS in a new Ulster squad time.
Another swimmers showing that perseverance pays off was Amy McCullagh who made her 1st Irish Age Group qualifying time.
Day 2
33 individual swims
5 Gold
5 Bronze
13 other top 10 finishes
Amy McCullagh takes yesterday form into today and makes her 2nd Div 1 QT in the 400 free with a huge PB. Ben Woodside makes it a breaststroke double winning the 200 after yesterday’s 100. Anna Campbell also wins double Gold in the distance Free adding the 400 to the 800. Conor Ferguson takes Gold in the 100 Free and Ollie Andrews picks up the win in the 100 BC. The evening finished off with a bronze for the Girls 4 x 50 MTR and the Boys team of Conor Ferguson, Lui Hurson, Ryan lewis and Finn Purdy setting a new Irish Junior record in the same event.
A clean sweep of PB times in the morning IM events (400 for girls and 200 for guys) saw the last day of racing get off to a great start. The last day of the meet resulted in 29 out of the 35 swims compete in the finals session.
Adam mahood picked up his 1st Ulster Age group title in the 200Fly and Ryan Lewis collected his 1st medql of the meet with a bronze in the 200IM while Mark Doherty collected a silver in the 100 BC.
Amy McCullagh completed a hattrick of Irish Age Group QTs with the 200 Free.
The Under 17 boys completed a double over local rivals Ards taking the title in the 4 x 50 FTR just missing the Ulster Junior record and the U16 girls matched their medley result taking a bronze in the FTR.
A great weekend of racing
The skills on display have been the most satisfying thing with everyone showing a huge improvement in the distance carried off the starts and turns.
Welcome to the new blog of Larne Swimming Club. The purpose of this is specifically to write about club events, competitions, and (hopefully) success stories.
Our full club website can be found here and will give much more information about the club as a whole.
I plan to use this wordpress page specifically to share the events of meets as they unfold.
Hopefully this will help with keeping everyone informed about competitions cross the entire club.
TeamLarne 