Lisburn Christmas Meet 2021

Larne was back racing again, with the junior end of the club. Swimmers from the Academy, Development, Competitive and Junior National sqauds were competitive swimming at the Lisburn Christmas meet.

This meet was hosted in Lisburn, and was very well supported. With less than two weeks until Christmas, the excitement of racing and wearing our new club tshirts meant a very exciting meet was in store.

A huge congratulations to every swimmer as they all posted Personal Best times in every event!

Iona Tweed, Maddy McDowell and Lucy Maxwell got us underway in the 25m Backstroke, with all 3 girls dropping over +10 second PB’s, along with Megan O’Mahony who placed 4th. Annabella Cole took Gold, placing 1st in her age group going  sub 20 seconds.

The boys were up next, Connor Sidwell, Oliver Niblock, Issac Lee and Issac Prince all firing off PB’s. Oliver placed 15th overall in a very strong and competitive field.

In the breaststroke, Annabella Cole placed forth missing out on a medal by 3 hundredths of a second. The boys again were up against very tough opposition but all had very good PB’s which will please their coaches.

Oliver Niblock and Isaac Lee showed some good skills in the 25m butterfly. Maddy McDowell placed 15th in the 11 year old category racing for the first time, very impressive along with Lucy Maxwell and Iona Tweed who placed very respectfully. Topping off the girls were Megan O’Mahony in 7th and Annabella Cole taking silver just  missing out top spot.

The 25m Freestyle events were hottly contested with some huge PB’s from Maddy McDowell, Iona Tweed, Isaac Lee and Conor Sidwell. Oliver Niblock, placed 20th, with Isaac Prince finishing 7th , followed by Megan O’Mahony taking 3rd and Annabella Cole sharing 1st with a joint equal time of 15.90.
Session two, started with a bang when Louisa Humphries ripped out a 100m backstroke placing 1st with the fastest time of the entire day across all age groups narrowly missing out on an Irish Short Course qualification time. Alex Rea and Owen Wasnidge placed within the top 20 of their age groups demonstrating good skills and big PB’s.

The boys 50 butterfly produced 3 top 20 swims from Keegan McLoughlin, Ciaran Laverty and Owen Wasnidge, narrowly, missing out on a top 10 place by 3 tenths.

The breaststroke was another hottly contested event, which saw Marco Allen place 6th, Evan Houston 10th, Ethan Smyth 15th , Ciaran Laverty 22nd , and Owen Wasnidge 24th with Asha McIllroy swimming a very good race placing 27th out of 46.

In the 50m Freestyle, Mia Grills placed with the top 20, along with Marco Allen, Ryan Cleland and Oliver Smyth – who narrowly missed out on a sub 30 second swim.

The final session got underway with the 50m backstroke with Mia Grills placing 16th, and Alex Rea placing 7th with an 8 second PB.

Mia and Asha were back in action in the 100m Freestyle, with the girls separated by only 3 tenths in a very good race. In the boys event Dawson Taylor placed 20th with a very good PB, followed by massive PB’s from Owen Wasnidge (-31.22), Ciaran Laverty (-28.14) and Evan Houston (-25.08).

The last two events saw Mia Grills and Asha McIllroy go head to head in the 50m breaststroke with Asha taking 13th and Mia 14th split by 0.98 seconds. Joining the girls were Evan Houston in 6th, Ethan Smyth in 11th, Ryan Cleland 14th and Owen Wasnidge 15th within their age groups.

It is fantastic to see our members getting back into the racing pool again and the coaches where all delighted with how everyone performed.  The skills, effort, commitment and determination was evident.

It will be great to see how far you all can go when we race again after Christmas.

Back to training and working on the skills that the coaches are teaching you so that next time we can see event better swimming

Well done everyone.

Larne Sprints 2019

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

Results will also be on the club website

http://www.larneswimmingclub.org

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

#oneclub #oneteam #teamlarne #wearelarne🔴⚫🟢

P

Swim Ulster Development Meet 3

On Saturday and small group of the clubs youngest swimmers took to the water on the start of their competitive swimming journey.
It was great to see 2 people racing for the 1st time👍
The purpose behind the development meets is to provide a shorter more accessible level as an introduction to competitive swimming. Skills are emphasised over time and sessions last about 2 hours.

The kicking races are an interesting addition to the program at this level and it’s good to see the need for a strong leg kick being emphasised (even if it doesn’t make for a great spectator experience) . And the ability to streamline is rewarded more than times in the medley events.
This is the first year Swim Ulster has tried to do this sort of format and there are a few teething issues but the principal matches our own club Development strategy of process driven coaching.
Anyway well done everyone who took part (i will get a full results list out soon) I was delighted with the progress being made and the skills on display.
🅿