A huge crowd from all over Munster came to Fermoy on Sunday, October 6 to compete in the first gala of the season.
New rules and regulations introduced by Munster – making the times to upgrade even harder from one grade to the next – increased our attendance to 340 swimmers. So the competition was extremely fierce.
Our first swimmer up was Nathan O’Flynn who had a brilliant gala gaining good personal best times and winning a silver medal in the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly and gaining his Dev 2 time in both, an outstanding achievement in this field.
Enda Terry was up next knocking 1.92 off his 100m free time swimming also in 50m breast and 100 IM. Maciej Sawicki swam in the 100m free getting closer to his time, as well as taking a 2.8 seconds off his 100m IM and in the 50m free he blew his fellow swimmers out of the water, winning gold.
Ethan Armstrong had a very successful gala achieving good times in his 100m free -2.7 secs and hit his 50m butterfly Dev 2 time just being pipped for a medal in fourth place, he finished with a 50m backstroke. Luke Harrington was up next with a sound 100m free and a scorching 50m back where he smashed his time by 3.04 seconds.
Dara Harrington had not been sitting on the sofa for the summer he took off an incredible 5.56 secs off his 100m free and 5.05 secs off his 50m back he also swam well in his 50m breast and 50m free.
Louis Gorey smashed his 100m free time to gain his Dev 2 time and then powered his way to his 100m IM Dev 2 time. This meant that he is now an official Munster Dev 2 swimmer as he already had his 50m back and breaststroke time.
Oisín Morrison swam a convincing 100m free followed by Dev 2 time in his 50m breast. Billy Warnes – a new comer to the competitive scene – swam a strong 100m free and 50m breaststroke and said he had thoroughly enjoyed his day.
Margaret Verling had a very enjoyable day also winning silver in the 100m IM also getting her Dev 2 time and smashing 10.05 off her time! She then just missing out on her 100m free time by a mere .72 of a second – next time Margaret. You slashed 3.09 secs off your breaststroke.
Emma Crowley also swam an excellent 100m IM getting her Dev 2 time and smashing 9.27 seconds off her PB. She gained another PB in her 100m free and 50m breast. Kate O’Donnell washed away the summer salt with her 100m IM free and 50m backstroke.
Evie Mai O’Donovan had a great meet obliterating her 100m IM time by 18 seconds, 100m IM by 15.93 secs and her 50m breast by 6.59 secs. Emily Donohue was also wiping seconds off her times, -6.62 on her 100m IM -1.72 off her 100m free and – 6.58 off her breaststroke.
Aisling Diggin was another very successful swimmer knocking off 4.19 seconds in her 100m IM securing her Dev 2 time and – 2.83 seconds nailing her Dev 2 100m free time. She also swam well in the 50m breast just missing Dev 2 time by a smidgen.
Lauryn O’Donovan gained her 50m backstroke time and then took a super 3.90 off her 100m free time. Emily Gorey took 6.62 off her 100m IM time to gain her Dev 2 time she then just missed out on her 50m back and breaststroke time she already has her 50m fly time so only one of those to get Emily and you’re there.
Meabh Lee, Nefeli and Melina Pyrovolaki, Maria Murphy, Aoife Morrison, Nichole McCarthy and Conor McHugh were all getting back into the swing of competing knocking off the summer rust and fine tuning their skills. For David Dixon it was a different matter as it was his first Munster gala, well done David you did us proud.
Peter Verling took 4.49 seconds off his 50m breast time ensuring his new Dev 2 time in this and also his 100m IM so he is now a fully-fledged Munster Dev 2 swimmer. He also won a bronze medal in the 50m free. Sean McHugh took an incredible 9.97 secs off his 100m IM and 4.92 off his breast good day out for Sean.
Fergal O’Connell was also swimming in the same vein with a massive 7.06 secs off his 50m breast and 3.5 off his 50m free. Padraig O’Toole cut 4.44 off his 100m IM and 3.41 off his fly.
Aoibhe Holland’s first event was the 50m backstroke where she not only made her Dev 2 time but also won bronze in the process a great achievement in this huge field of swimmers. She just missed out on another medal coming 4th in the 50m free and 50m fly where she also got her Dev 2 time. Katie Rice swam in the 50m backstroke 100m free and then blossomed in the 50m breast where she took off 5.27 seconds gaining her Dev 2 time. She then went on to add her 50m fly to her Dev 2 tally.
Lauren Kiely knew exactly what she had to do and she nailed her 50m butterfly time so she had the set to become a fully-fledged Munster Dev 2 swimmer. Well done Lauren.
Mia Callanan took a fantastic 4.20 seconds off her 50m breaststroke. William Verling gained 2 medals one in the 50m free and another in the 50m backstroke.
Thank you to all the parents who helped out on the day, these galas would not take place without your input. Thanks to all the staff at the Fermoy Leisure Centre making it a safe and enjoyable day. Thanks to the officials and all the coaches who attended to help and support their swimmers.
Coaches Jackie Power and Paula Finn were very impressed with their swimmers. This gala is very early in the season and gaining personnel bests so early is a bonus.
Both coaches were very pleased with all their swimmers’ performances and encourage them to train diligently for the next gala, whilst still enjoying their training and competing.
Regional Qualifying Meet
The next competitive outing for our club is to the Munster Qualifying Meet in UL this weekend. We have 11 swimmers taking part, in what is sure to be a very busy weekend.
Short course season is now in full swing, and we would strongly advise all swimmers and parents to make themselves familiar with the new Munster qualifying rules and times coming into effect from January.
Please use the next few months to try for whatever times you need in order to swim at the level you are aiming for.
Check the gala calendar and work out a plan! Information on all changes can be found on our club website.
If in doubt, ask your coach.
Club Kit
We are putting in an order for club half-zip tops this weekend, if any parent wishes to purchase one for their swimmer please contact memsecfsc@gmail.com as soon as possible.
Tops cost €35 and come with initials. We have club teeshirts in stock at the moment, all competitive swimmers should have a teeshirt for wearing to galas, please contact the email address above if you wish to purchase one.
A supply of larger sizes is due shortly and we will let you know when they are in.
Congratulations
Well done to all the Fermoy SC swimmers to represented their schools at the Munster Minor and Senior Schools Swimming Championships in UL last weekend.
There was some fantastic swimming over the 2 days, and some wonderful pbs, considering how early in the season it is. Well done to everyone.
