European Short Course Championships 2019

The European Short Course Championships happens every 2 years in December.

For Irish athletes it’s an opportunity to race against the very best in Europe without the pressure of funding or future team selection riding on your performance.

In a season that has Irish Olympic Trials, European Long Course and potentially the Olympics at the end of it, this may not be the most important meet if the year. It is however I vital opportunity to race and gives a nice mid season punctuation before transitioning to the long course season.

Team Larne had 2 athletes selected to represent Ireland on this meet.

Danielle Hill (50, 100 BC, 50, 100 FREE)

Conor Ferguson (50, 100, 200 BC)

The team travelled from Belfast on Monday the 2nd. A training session on Tuesday then racing started on Wednesday 4th.

Day 1

Danielle 100 BC

You really can’t ask for too much more than stepping up on the 1st morning and posting a best time. This is exactly what D did breaking the minute for the 1st time. This was good enough to qualify for the semi final and just missed the Irish record by 0.08.

In the Semi that afternoon, for me, she produced the swim of the week. Lowering the National Standard to a world class 58.6 just missing out on the final.

Conor 200 BC

This was a switch in focus for Conor this season and he recorded his fastest ever heat swim and 2nd fastest 200. Just missing out on a tough qualification as with no Semi Finals only top 8 progress.

Day 2

Danielle 100 FREE

The heats produced yet another personal best time for Danielle in what is her 4th choice event.

Conor 100 BC

Another great heat swim saw Conor record his 1st PB in this event in 2 years and break his own Ulster Senior Record.

Day 3

Mixed FS relay

Both Danielle and Conor has a day off from individual events with a warm up and paddle in the morning and the D was on the mixed Free relay with Shane Ryan, Jordan Sloan and Mona McSharry. Swimming on the 3rd leg she posted a 24.0 and helping the team secure a final place. This is the 1st national relay to qualify for a senior international final.

In the final the team placed 8th and while Shane broke the Senior FS record on the 1st leg Danielle again went 24.0 and the team broke the Irish senior record.

Day 4

Danielle 50 BC

Having broken the 50BC record 3 weeks ago at BUCS, Danielle swam the heats looking to move up the ranking list and progress to the next round. A time of 26.92 did just that breaking the Irish record again becoming the 1st Irish female under 27 seconds.

At European level the heats, semi and final of 50 events happen in the same day so it was back that night for the semi of the 50 back and an incredible swim of 26.74 smashes the new record and finished top 10 and just outside the final spots.

Mixed medley

Both Conor and Danielle were selected for this team with Conor on the lead of leg and Danielle on the glory leg at the end. Conor posted a seasons best and D once again produced a 24.0 to secure a final spot. In the Final the team once again broke the Irish Senior record.

Day 5

The last day of a long meet can be a tough one to get right with tired bodies and minds that are harder to focus so it’s important to stick to your routines and focus on the process.

Danielle 50 FREE

This record has been switch back and forth between D and Mona for about 2 years now. Each time they break it they lower it by a few hundredths. At BUCS D lowered Mona’s time of 50.03 to 25.00.

The heats saw Danielle produce a new mark of 24.7 to become the fastest female in Irish history and move thru to the semi final. As if that wasn’t enough she then produced an even better swim to lower the Irish standard to 24.44 agonisingly close to getting a 3rd swim finishing in a tie for 9th.

Conor 50 BC

The men’s 50 BC is always incredibly tight and in a blanket finish Conors time of 23.86 was just outside the top 16 places.

Mens medley relay

Conor is staking a claim for the lead out legs of the men’s medley events and will have done himself no harm at all touching in 23.66 (a new Ulster senior record and a time that wud have progressed to the semi final of the individual) helping the team of Darragh Greene, Shane Ryan and Jordan Sloan set a new Irish mark.

High drama in the last final of the week saw 3 teams disqualified and the Irish finish in 6th

Women’s Medley relay.

Danielle’s spot at the Backstroke lead off is secured and she delivered again with a great swim to help the team set yet another Irish senior record.

A fantastic week of racing and confidence building heading into the next block of work and heading to trials in April.

2 Athletes

7 Events

9 best times

7 Ulster records

5 Irish records (4 relay records)

3 semifinals

2 relay finals

#teamlarne

#wearelarne

European SC Championships

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

Good luck guys

P

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.