Big TEAM Racing @ Leinster Championships !

Last weekend in the NAC saw a BIG team of 34 Athletes from the Templeogue Swim Club racing at the Leinster Open Long Course Championships.  This was the first mainstream Long Course competition of the season for most of the Athletes who raced and in more cases it was the first time many of the young team had raced Long course.

The total 124 PB’s delivered for the weekend of racing was indicative of the progress being made by the athletes in both the training and racing pool.  The event is a senior championship event and a Long Course competition (Olympic sized pool) and there were some fantastic results for the team were produced over the 2 days of racing.

On the Saturday morning the event kicked off with the 200FC where the club was well represented Elaine Crossan (13) and Arianne Courtney (11) opened their Long Course accounts with strong PB’s while Megan Culbert (12), Anna O’Gara (14) and Keeva Bowe (14) did likewise with style while Caroline Ryan (14) demonstrated how much she has progressed by smashing her PB in this event, while Muirin Goulding (15) and Caoilfhinn Tan (14) also delivered strong Swims & PB’s in their first event of the weekend.  Ruth O’Gara (17) also tee’d up a good weekend of racing for her as she too smashed an existing PB, while Ellen Walshe (12), Nicole Walshe (15) and Jessica Burke (13) also notched up strong PB’s in their first outing of the weekend.   As this is an open event (Senior Competition) Niamh Murphy (20) was the only qualifier for the finals delivering a 5^th place finish in the PM swim as she too delivered a season’s best time in this event.

In the Mens event some of the club’s youngest boys delivered massive PB’s in the event and some valuable racing experience in the Olympic pool as Jamie Flanagan (11), Ronan Tan (11), Joe Kenny (12), Evan Rossiter (13), Greg Sinnott (14), Traolach McKnight (15) and Eoin Feighan (15) were pretty happy with their efforts as they were all big PB’s and shows each of them how well they’ve progressed since the season start.  Tom Giblin (15) and Cathal Tan (15) also posted strong swims with Tan making it to the Finals in the evening where he further improved on his PB, finishing 3^rd in his ‘B’ Final.

The day was full of big swims as Arianne Courtney (11) and Alie Martin (13) posted more good PB’s in the Sprint BS event, while Anna O’Gara (14), Leah Martin (10), Keeva Bowe (14) and Muirin Goulding (15) were pleased with their PB swims as Caoilfhinn Tan (14) posted a strong effort but was just outside making the finals.  The boys event was equally successful for the team’s swimmers as Cathal Tan (15) repeated his final making performances with another big PB and a further 4^th place result in the ‘B’ Final while Evan Rossiter (13), Eoin Feighan (15) and Traolach McKnight (15) also smashed existing PB’s and the younger athletes Ethan Brady (11), Sean Kenny (11), Jamie Flanagan (11) and Ronan Tan (11) smashed between 2 and 10 seconds of their PB’s in the long course pool.

The first medal of the day for the club was gained by Ellen Walshe (12) in the Womens 400IM where she posted a new PB to finish in the Silver medal position as a Leinster athlete and in the 4^th place overall, given two of the older girls who raced were not from Leinster.  This is Ellen’s first senior medal and a great statement for her progress this season.  Jessica Burke (14) also raced this event, one of her strong events, but had to withdraw due to injury from this event and the competition as a whole, as she prepares to represent Leinster next weekend at the Ulster Age Group Championships with her team mates Ellen Walshe (12), Evan Rossiter (13) & Cathal Tan (15).

In the Mens 400IM, Joe Kenny (12) also smashed over 20 seconds off his PB to finish in 4^th place overall in what again was a senior event and only his 2^nd time to race the event Long Course.

Walshe was back in the pool for one of her favoured events as she and Arianne Courtney (11) took on the Butterfly event with Ellen Walshe (12) winning the ‘B’ Final having been excluded from the ‘A’ Senior final where she her time would have put her in 5^th place overall and the 4^th ranked Leinster swimmer.   Her resulting time is also inside the required time to be considered for the National Squads.   In the boys Butterfly event Jamie Flanagan (11) and Tom Giblin (15) flew the flag with both boys delivering PB’s and Giblin qualifying for the ‘B’ Final where he too finished in 9^th place in the event.  This is Giblin’s first return to racing and a welcome PB and confidence building result for the rest of the season.

In the women’s 200BS event the clubs girls continued the 100% PB performances as Arianne Courtney (11), Alie Martin (13), Megan Culbert (12), Caroline Ryan (14) and Keeva Bowe (14) all delivered PB’s in this event.  The boys weren’t to be outdone as brothers Joe (12) and Sean (11) Kenny both posted PB’s in the 200BS, while Evan Rossiter (13) and Traolach McKNight (15)  confidently made use the opportunity to qualify for the Finals with McKnight further improving on his heat swim PB to finish in 4^th place in his ‘B’ Final while Rossiter gained further Final’s experience after his valiant PB in the morning.

Next up for the Day was the Sprint FC event with Niamh Murphy (20) leading the charge to the finals for the girls finishing in 6^th place on the day in one of her favoured events. Picking up additional PB’s were Nicole Walshe (15), Ruth O’Gara (17), Alie Martin (13) & Muirin Goulding knocking out a good strong swim also, while in the Mens event Tom Giblin (15) stormed to the ‘A’ Final with a big PB to qualify in 7^th while Cathal Tan (15), Callum Ramkaun (14) & Ethan Brady (11) all posted PB’s also.

Nicole Walshe (15) continued her good form as she was next on the block in the 400FC, again posting a New PB from the one she recently set in Bangor at the Dave McCullagh meet.  Ruth O’Gara (17) also set up her first LC 400PB with a strong swim as Muirin Goulding (15) & Caoilfhinn Tan (14) posted solid swims although outside their best to date.  The younger girls of Caroline Ryan (14), Megan Culbert (12) & Leah Martin (10) smashed some big big PB’s in their swims so spent the day smiling after such strong efforts.  Also finishing our Day strongly was Eoin Feighan (15) who posted the best swim of his career and a beautifully paced effort to take a bronze medal as the 3^rd fastest Leinster swimmer in the 1500FC.  Well done on Day 1 to ALL.

After a strong Day 1 Performance the athletes returned to deliver more of the same on Day 2 of the event.  Kicking off the first event of the day saw Ellen Walshe (12) smash a huge PB in the 200BF and finishing in Leinster Bronze Medal position finishing as the 3^rd place overall Leinster swimmer.  Caoilfhinn Tan (14) posted a strong result in the 50BC before smashing a BIG PB in the Womens 100FC .  Niamh Murphy (20) finished in the silver medal position in the 100FC with a great final swim performance in the event, which also saw big PB’s from sisters  Nicole (15) & Ellen Walshe (12) while other sisters Ruth (17) & Anna O’Gara (14) also kept family PB’s order of the day.  Strong Swims from Eva Martin (17) returning to compete after a 3 year absence was coupled by a good effort from Muirin Goulding (15), and more PB’s from Leah Martin (10), Elaine Crossan (13), Megan Culbert (12) and Caroline Ryan (14) kept the troops smiling for the morning on day 2.  Big PB’s too were the order of the morning in the Sprint FC event for the Boys as Ronan Tan (11) and Ethan Brady (11) raced fast with Sean Kenny (11) to deliver a 3 for 3 in their heat, while Sean Maguire (12), Finn O’Keeffe (12), Callum Ramkaun (14), Evan Rossiter (13), Eoin Feighan (15) & Traolach McKnight (15) also delivered big PB’s before watching Cathal Tan (15) and Tom Giblin (15) continue the PB trend as Giblin qualified for the ‘B’ Final finishing in 5^th place in his event final.

Joe Kenny (12) and Traolach McKnight (15) put great Breastroke PB’s on the board with McKnight qualifying for the ‘B’ final in his first LC Leinster Open Championships, while Kenny added to his skilful performances and PB’s for the weekend.  The Girls also delivered a good set of PB’s in the Breastroke as Elaine Crossan (13), Sisters Alie (12) & Leah Martin (10) all swam PB’s while Caroline Ryan (14) & Megan Culbert (12) made it 100% PB’s for the girls in that event.  Cathal Tan (15) had one of his strongest swims of the weekend to finish as the 5^th Leinster swimmer in the 200BC in another new PB, while Tom Giblin (15) just missed the final as more PB’s arrived for Greg Sinnott (14) & Sean Kenny (11), while Joe Kenny (12) & Ronan Tan (11) also posted strong LC swims.   Caoilfhinn Tan (14) strongly won her ‘B’ Final in a big New PB as she finished as the 6^th fastest Leinster Athlete in the 200BC, while Muirin Goulding (15) built on her suite of strongly delivered swims for the weekend with a well raced effort in her 200BC event.

Some of the stronger performances for the club came in the Mens 400FC event with Cathal Tan (15) topping the pile for our boys as he picked up a silver medal in his event in a new SB time.  A first time LC 400FC for his younger brother Ronan (11) saw a guaranteed PB for him as Sean Maguire (12), Joe Kenny (12), Greg Sinnott (14) & Finn O’Keeffe (12) posted some great new PB’s in their events.  Evan Rossiter (13), Matthew Parnell (14) & Eoin Feighan (15) were inseparable in their races as Feighan swam just outside his PB while racing Parnell & Rossiter to big new PB’s in their respective races.  Sean Maguire (12) was quickly back on the block in a new sprint 50BF event for him but posted another fine PB in the process, while Eva Martin (17) & Alie Martin (13) teamed up with Niamh Murphy (20) in the sprint 50BF, where Murphy qualified for the Final finishing in 5^th place.

The day was drawing to a close as more PB’s fell as Evan Rossiter (13) blasted his way to a ‘B’ Final place with team mate Matthew Parnell (14), where Rossiter further improved on his earlier PB by another 3 seconds, while Traolach McKnight (15), Eoin Feighan (15), Finn O’Keeffe (12) and Ethan Brady (11) also posted PB’s to finish their weekend on a high, before the girls did likewise as Ellen Walshe (12) qualified for the final as Ruth O’Gara (17), Caoilfhinn Tan (14), Muirin Goulding (15) & Alie Martin (12) also finished their respective racing weekend with some good PB’s also.  In the final individual event of the weekend Nicole Walshe (15) demolished her previous best time in the 800FC to cap off a great weekend.

The total of 124 PB’s was a great return for the TEAM for their hard work and continued development in the training pool and sets them up with a real focus as they now head in to the last cycle of training to prepare for either the Irish LC Nationals and additional summer meets over the coming months.  Big thanks to Coaches Peter Sherry, Colm O’Brien and Paul Conlon for their work with these swimmers year to date and to all other coaches who support the program.

Brian Sweeney – Head Coach – TEAM TSC – 086 8200084.