IT was an early start for the Enniskillen Lakelanders on Sunday at the Templemore Swim Meet as the warm-up session started at 08.00am to facilitate a highly subscribed event with more than 2,000 entries.

The competitive swimming started with two Lakelanders Teams entered in the 10 and under Medley Relay with the younger team consisting of Eloise Boyd, Kate McDade, Georgia Maravaklis and Molly Rice. They completed the event in 1.52 which is a fantastic achievement considering that this was the first competitive event for some. The older team of Anna Cairns, Anna McDade, Annnabel Morrison and Abigail Boyd also swam a fantastic time of 1.27 achieving a 2nd place and the first silver medal of the day.

Then the individual events began with the 25 metre events. Anna Cairns and Molly Rice, nine years old both competed in 25m backstroke, freestyle and breaststroke. Both girls achieved PBs in all their strokes showing great improvement in their freestyle times in particular. Anna was delighted to compete in the medley relay and pick up a silver medal.

Darcy Balfour, aged eight, also competing in her first swim Ulster event overcame nerves and gained a massive 11 second PB in her breaststroke and a 3 second PB in her Freestyle. She thoroughly enjoyed the day. Another eight-year-old Kate McDade also attending her first competitive gala, achieved PBs in all four strokes and achieved an impressive 4th place in her 25m Breaststroke. Eloise Boyd age eight took part in both relay events and produced PBs in backstroke, freestyle and even managed to knock three seconds of her butterfly. Conan McCaffrey was also competing for the first time in such a big event and was delighted to achieve a well deserved PB in his 50m breaststroke. Georgia Maravelakis had a busy day and showed great promise with five PBs in all her events, it was great given that this was her first real gala.

Abigail Boyd also continued the trend in the 9 and under individual events with PBs in backstroke and freestyle, a super position overall in the IM and also a bronze medal for 3rd place in the 25m breaststroke. Siblings Jamie and Isobel Lannon both entered the event. Jamie aged nine had a successful morning competing in all individual events. Jamie achieved PBs in her 25m Freestyle and Fly but notability took 1.65 seconds off his Backcrawl and an impressive 5 seconds off his breaststroke. Isobel aged 10, individually went on to win silver medals in both 50m fly and 50m backstroke and most importantly achieving her last qualifying time. In her final event 100m freestyle Isobel managed to take 16 seconds of her previous time placing her 8th.

Anna McDade had her best swim of the day in 100m IM coming 4th overall and knocking 4 seconds off her PB achieving a qualifying time. She also swam 50m freestyle achieving another PB and narrowly missing out on a qualifying time by only half a second.

The Enniskillen Lakelanders freestyle relay a team consisted of Isobel Lannon, Anna McDade, Annabel Morrison and Cora Cassidy. This team proved to be unstoppable comfortably lifting the gold medal.

The younger team consisting of Abigail and Eloise Boyd, Kate McDade and Molly Rice also swam amazingly.

Annabel Morrison also went on to swim 100m IM and improved her time by 2.5 seconds gaining a well deserved divisional time placing her 5th. Annabel also swam 50m Freestyle and 50m Fly coming in 4th gaining PBs in both events. Frank Buchanan had a fantastic day, gaining PBs in all four strokes in particular his butterfly knocking a massive 16 seconds off his time, proving that hard work and practice really does pay off. Lauren Keaney also made the long journey to Lisburn competing in three events. Lauren was delighted to gain two PBs, and was placed 5th in her 50m breaststroke. Molly Johnson was delighted with her achievements knocking seconds of all her swims and getting a silver medal for her 50m Breaststroke.

Niamh O’Kane left Lisburn with two gold medals and a 5th place finish from her four swims along with three PBs and two further IAG divisional times and the title of fastest girl on the day with 50 free style in 30.77 sec. Niamh also gained PBs in the 50m and 100m fly and despite being disappointed by missing out on winning the overall 13-year-old girl trophy she was delighted with her overall progress. The additional pool time and guidance from coach Rob has renewed Niamh’s drive to achieve Irish Age Group Division 1 status again this year, and with Bangor this weekend, Niamh will take another step closer to that Div. 1 goal.

11 year old Ciosa McConnell, 11, competed in four events. She finished a very commendable 4th place in the 50m breaststroke and achieved PBs in the 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle events. She also obtained a PB in the 100m breaststroke and secured a qualifying time along with top 10 finish. Cora Cassidy, age 10, had great swims for her 100m IM improving her time by over two seconds and also gaining PB in her 50m freestyle. Cora was on the gold medal relay team and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

It was a great day for Tara McKenzie as well, this was her first competition this year. She went with the hope of getting PBs and maybe a divisional time. Delighted with all results, Tara came in 3rd in her 100m Breaststroke and her 1st Division time for 2017. In 100m Fly and 100m Freestyle Tara got PBs and came in top 10. Tara is looking forward to a busy season ahead.

All in all the Lakelanders had a great day in Lisburn and were delighted to have their coach Rob with them whose advice and support made such a difference.