In a hard-fought battle, Strule Dolphins got the upper hand against Enniskillen Lakelanders in the South West Minor League fixture on Sunday in the Lakeland Forum.

The visiting team gained valuable points in the starting relay events which were hard to claw back from despite fantastic performances from the hard-working Lakelanders.

The individual races saw some excellent racing from the home club and many personal best times achieved.

The Backstroke saw some great swimming from the club. In the first event, Kate McDade placed second, missing out on first place the slimmest of margins.

The 2006 girls backstroke event saw a very exciting race, with first, second and third place finishers all within 1.5 seconds of each other. First place went to the visiting Strule Dolphins, with a brilliant second and third place going to Lakelanders Niamh Henry and Ela Winters respectively.

Frank Buchanan took first place for the 2006 boys in the backstroke taking two seconds off his PB in the event, closely followed by Patrick Williams, both gaining much needed points for their club.

More great performances by Molly Johnson, Owen O’Donnell, Maria Kelly Neill and Darragh Cox all placing in the top three in their events and scoring for the Lakelanders.

The competition continued with the Breaststroke with a convincing win by Abigail Boyd and teammate Anna Cairns placing third, only a fraction behind the Strule swimmer.

The Lakelanders dominated in the breaststroke, with more first placings by Emilie Reihill, Ciosa McConnell, Matthew Dolan, Maria Kelly Neill and Jason Man.

More first places were achieved in the Butterfly with Nial Bruce, Ciosa McConnell and Matthew Dolan all coming out on top in this challenging stroke.

The final individual races of the morning were in the frontcrawl which saw wins by Sarah Harte and Maebh Dolan.

The mornings racing concluded with the Medley Relays with Strule showing force and coming out on top in all but one race.

Siblings Isobel and Jamie Lannon, together with Anna McDade deserve special mention as all swam brilliantly throughout the competition scoring points despite the fact that they were swimming out of their age groups against much older swimmers.

The final score was Strule Dolphins 539, Enniskillen Lakelanders 443. The league continues with the Lakelanders facing Sligo in an away gala on April 22.