The Irish Age Groups Championships and Summer Open is the most important event in the Irish swimming calendar each each for many and the culmination of a year’s hard training. 
Seven girls and four boys from the Enniskillen Lakelanders Amateur Swimming Club entered the event supported by Cavanagh Kelly. The Fermanagh side and returned home with two Irish titles and some fantastic personal bests and great experience. 
It has been four years since the Wilson sisters won medals at this level and 13 years since Orla McGandy dominated the breaststroke event to reach the Youth Olympics. 
Eleven year old Ellie McCartney, 11, returned to the pool where she won the Irish Minor Schools Championships in February with the hope of making a final at the 12 and under level for the second successive year. On Thursday Ellie was seeded 14th in the 200m individual medley and recorded a four second personal best time of 2:49.91 leaving her 11th overall and first reserve for the final. 
On Friday the Enniskillen swimmer swam in the heats of the 100m breaststroke to record a new PB and reach the final, where she swam a fantastic race, was even 2nd at one point and finishing in fourth place behind three 12-year-olds. She just missed out on the medals although she did knock a further three seconds off her time, finishing in 1:23.93. Ellie was pleased but slightly disappointed not to reach the podium.
Saturday morning saw the heats of the 200m breaststroke – her favourite event. Ellie hadn’t recorded a personal best since this competition last year but was determined to improve her times following a number of sessions with former Irish Olympian Andrew Bree over the last four weeks. 
In her heat Ellie swam a good race to achieved a new PB by 3.5 seconds to finish as second seed for the final later that evening. During the warm up for the final Ellie teamed up with Andrew Bree once again to analyze her 200m Breaststroke heat video to see where improvements could be made. Ellie was in lane five next to an Ards Swimmer who had won five Gold Medals already, having won the 100m Breaststroke Final the evening before. In the final, what has since been called the race of the Championships, the ‘EllieFish’ swam the perfect race. She was  using her strengths spending most of the race in second place right until the last five metres, where she powered through to win by three 100ths of a second to become Irish champion to much applause by the hundreds of spectators at the NAC, finishing in a time of 2:53.67. 
It was a wonderful end to a long weekend leaving Ellie once again as the fastest breaststroker at her age for the third year running – as well as winning the 12-year-old title and being the youngest medal-winner at the championships. 
Oisin McManus had put aside any nerves he had before these Championships, relying instead on his full season of dedicated training and concentrating on his strongest strokes - freestyle and backstroke. He went on to have his best ever swimming competitions, a top 10 position in all of his four races and a gold medal for the 1500m freestyle.
In his first event, the 400m freestyle, Oisin was ranked 14th. With a storming 15.53 second PB and a time of 4:49.07mins, he finished in sixth place. This was a huge confidence boost for him and an hour later he lined up for his second event. The 100m backstroke was a race which Oisin had excelled at during the 2015 season, but which he had not concentrated on in 2016. 
However, Oisin again achieved a 3.52 second PB and made the final with a time of 1:14.49. After a hearty lunch, Oisin returned to the NAC for the final and once again improved his time by 0.77s, moving from 13th to seventh position overall.
Oisin’s third event of the championships was the 200m freestyle. Despite being ranked 15th he raced home with a 4.02s PB to qualify for his second final. In the evening session Oisin improved on his earlier time to finish in 2:19.35 and an overall eighth position, his third all-Ireland top 10 position. Throughout the competition, Oisin knew that his biggest challenge was the gruelling 1,500m freestyle on the afternoon of the final day of the competition. To give some perspective, the 1,500m would be 60 lengths of the Lakeland Forum pool and requires competitors to maintain their speed and their discipline whilst calling on all reserves of strength and stamina. Ranked in second place before the event, Oisin knew he needed to put in a strong performance to retain this position. In the end he put in the race of his life to take the gold medal with a time of 18:48.89 minutes. This was a huge improvement of 43.84 seconds on his previous time set just two months before when he took gold in the Leinster Division One finals.
Orla Keaveney was excited to be competing for the first time in Dublin and had qualified for nine events across the entire championships. She was competing in the 13-14 age group which she found to be quite daunting considering she was still only 12. On her first day she competed in just one event – the 50m freestyle. She had a solid race and finished close to her PB. On day two Orla competed in the 200IM and 400m freestyle. She had a strong swim in the 200IM but had a better finish, narrowly missing her PB by 0.2 of a second.
On day three, Orla was entered in the 200m back and 100m breaststroke. She again had two strong swims, just missing her PB in the 200m back but gained a new PB in the 100m breaststroke. 
On day four Orla competed in the 200m freestyle and 200m breaststroke. Both events were strong swims with Orla narrowly missing her PBs in both events. On the last day of the championships Orla competed in the 100m freestyle and 400m IM. She had her best race of the championship in the 100m freestyle with a good PB. To finish Orla competed in the 400m IM and after a demanding race, in which she had perhaps gone out too quickly, she again found that she had just missed her PB. 
Sorcha Lavelle, taking part in her third Irish Championships, competed in four events at this high level against up to 60 other swimmers in her age group. Her best ranking came in the 200m breaststroke where she finished in the top 20. Sorcha was unable to reach her usual high standards that she had set throughout the year but will compete again in this 15-16 age group next year. 
Caitlin Love swam in five events over the weekend including the 100m, 200m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley and 800m freestyle. Caitlin had strong swims in the 100m and 200m fly and 100m breaststroke. She achieved a new personal best in her 200m individual medley but it was the 800m freestyle where Caitlin had her best swim of the weekend. This is only Caitlin’s second time swimming this event. She achieved a new personal best and re-qualified for next year, showing great potential in this event.
Caitlin’s older sister Natasha Love competed in the open section of the competition and fell just short of finals in both events to international athletes.
Ben Lynch, 12, was competing for the first time at the Irish Age Groups. He achieved new PBs of nine seconds in the 400m freestyle and 13 seconds in the 800m freestyle to finish in 14th and fifth place respectively. He also finished in seventh place in the 1,500m freestyle.
Jack Maravelakis really enjoyed the Division 1 gala at the NAC Dublin. He swam amazingly given that he was unable to train very much prior to the gala but still managed a PB in 200m breaststroke and just outside his best in the 100m breaststroke. Jack is looking forward to next season.
Kealan McShea, 13, attended on day one, one of the younger competitors in the 2002-2003 age group. He had a great swim in the 100m backstroke, swimming to a new PB of 13.03 secs and was 12th-placed 14-year-old. He is aiming to return next year when he will be eligible to compete in the same year group.
Tara McKenzie qualified in 100m breaststroke and really enjoyed the whole experience, especially getting a new swimming skin so she can continue her fantastic progress over the last year.
Rachel Evans also put in some great performances over the championships.
The boys 4x100m 15 & under medley relay consisting of Kealan McShea, Jack Maravelakis, Oisin McManus and Ben Lynch put in a great performance finishing in just over five minutes.
The Lakelanders look forward to a new coach and moving the club to the next level. Anyone interested in joining in September should contact Lakelanders@mail.com