If a Gala is short course it is swam over 25 metres each length, if it is long course it is swam over 50 metre lengths.
On Saturday 25th and Sunday, March 26th, five hardy Fermoy swimmers made their way to Limerick University to swim in the Munster Long Course Championships. Qualifying times were tough and swimming the 50 metre lengths is also very challenging when you train in a 25-metre pool. Personal Bests are also hard to get at this level.
The Fermoy swimmers who took part in the recent Munster Long Course Championships at UL, Jill O’Flynn, Annelies Kouwenberg, Fiona Miao, Zoe Daniels-Howard and Jody Baker.
First to compete was Annelies Kouwenberg who swam the 400m Free and managed to knock 4.09 seconds off her time, she then swam in the 200 IM and swam another personal best of 1.53 seconds. A glutton for punishment, the next day she took on the 800 metres and achieved a great time of 11.14 seconds, well done Annelies.
Next up was Zoe Daniels-Howard who also swam a PB in the 400m Free of 1.99 secs. In the 200 IM she took off a very impressive 3.03 secs. Zoe also swam a PB in 100m Breaststroke making the finals which is a huge achievement at this gala.
The next day an even better performance saw Zoe taking 3.07 seconds off her 100m Free and 3.34 seconds off her 200m Breaststroke leaving her an agonising 0.03 seconds off her National Division 1 time. She finished off the day with a 1.20 second PB in the 100m Backstroke.
Fiona Miao was next to perform, swimming a great 3.13 PB in her 200m Backstroke. She also managed to get into the finals of the 100m Backstroke which once again is a great achievement.
Jodie Baker she swam a 0.72 second PB in her 200m IM. She took a staggering 5.48 seconds off her 100m Free making the finals to boot. Then in the finals she took off another second … amazing. She was not done there she took a further 0.38 seconds off her 200m Free.
Jill O’Flynn rushed into the gala at the last moment and her Coach Jackie Power was very concerned that she had not had a chance to warm up and had her jumping up and down on the spot and was convinced that she would not swim well. Boy, was she wrong – Jill swam a brilliant 5.16 PB in her 200m Breaststroke.
Thank you to all the parents who travelled to help at the gala and who supported the swimmers. A big thank you to Paula Finn and Jackie Power who attended as coaches.
SYNERGY CREDIT UNION SPONSORED PRIMARY SCHOOLS GALA
Fermoy Swimming Club secretary, Michael Callana collecting a sponsorship cheque from Noreanna Soe (Synergy Credit Union) and Michael’s daughter Maeve Callanan ahead of the recent Credit Union sponsored School’s Gala.
