National Division 2 Gala Limerick – 30th June – 03 July 2016
Six swimmers from Fermoy Swimming club qualified to swim for their club at the Irish National Division 2 Gala held at University Limerick over 4 days at the end of June beginning of July. Clubs from all over Ireland North and South were being represented.
Our first swimmer up was Annelies Kouwenburg who swam in the 400m I.M. In this event the swimmer has to swim 100m Butterfly 100m Backstroke 100m Breaststroke and 100m Front crawl. I feel exhausted just thinking about it but Annelies swam it in style cutting her previous time by 6.33 seconds.
Obviously being a very fit swimmer and up for a challenge Annelies also qualified and swam in the 200m Freestyle and the 400m Freestyle where she knocked off an incredible 30.33 seconds so well done Annelies on a great performance.
Next up was Anna Howard who qualified and swam in the 100m Backstroke and the 100m Breaststroke, well done Anna it is a great achievement to qualify and represent your club at this level.
Clare O’Driscoll qualified and swam in the 100m Backstroke and the 200m Backstroke once again a great achievement to be representing their club at this level.
Cess Kouwenburg was our next swimmer to swim competing in the 100m backstroke the only boy to have qualified and represented their club at this level. Well done Cess.
Zoe Daniels Howard was our next swimmer who took off 6.46 seconds in her 100m Breaststroke qualifying her not only to swim in the finals in the afternoon but putting her in number one spot. Going into the finals in first place puts a lot of pressure on a swimmer, however Zoe kept her cool and when another swimmer was neck and neck she said to herself ‘oh no you don’t and pushed hard to win the Gold.
Zoe also swam in the 200m Breaststroke and once again made the finals with a personal best, taking 10.95 seconds off her time. Zoe went in as 3rd fastest but swam really well to move up to 2nd place and win the Silver medal. Zoe also took 6.43 seconds off her swim in the 200m I.M. So well done to Zoe 2 medals at a Gala of this standard is excellent and achieving the Division 1 time for next year is also an excellent result.
Next to swim was Jill O’Flynn who swam another personal best in the 100m Breaststroke representing her club well.
So once again well done to all the swimmers who swam in this National Gala. Thanks also to all the parents who travelled and did the various jobs assigned to them without these parents the club would not be able to send swimmers to these Galas.
Also thanks goes to Coaches Jackie Power and Zdenka for attending and supporting the swimmers.
