Ellie Mc Cartney headlined a good weekend for the Enniskillen Lakelanders at the Irish Age Group championships in Dublin as she powered her way to three gold medals.

There were also two relay medals for the boys while Ellie picked up a a fourth medal, bronze, in the 50m freestyle. Elsewhere, there were excellent swims and a number of PBs from the 10 strong Lakelanders team at these most competitive of championship that took place over five days at the National Aquatic Centre.

Ellie McCartney (12) was returning to the scene of her first Irish Age Group title to challenge once again for the 200m 12&U breaststroke gold. The Lakelander swam an accomplished heat dropping three-quarters of a second from her best ever time leaving her as first seed for the final. In the final Ellie was up against stiff competition both nationally and internationally with another 12-year-old from Hamilton Aquatics in Dubai as second seed. From the starting buzzer Ellie swam confidently leading the race from start to finish, knocking another 3.5 seconds off her time to finish in 2:44.90 – eleven seconds ahead of the swimmer in second place and a new club record. Ellie was able to add the 100m breaststroke Irish title to her name when she smashed her PB to finish in 1:17.17, leaving her feeling on top of the world with another club record.

Ellie’s third gold came in the 200m Individual Medley which was one of the most exciting finals of the day. The young Lakelander was four seconds behind after the backcrawl but finished the breaststroke three seconds ahead and held onto the lead to win.

While Ellie also achieved finals in the 200m and 50m freestyle, it was her performance in the final of the latter that most impressed coach Rob Eynon. After qualifying in ninth position for the final, Rob suggested that she change technique to improve her performance.

In the final Ellie knocked a second off her time to finish with a bronze medal.

On Sunday evening, Ellie heard the fantastic news that her new 200m breaststroke time has now made her the fastest 12-year-old female in Great Britain and Ireland.

The Enniskillen Lakelanders 15&Under boys’ relay ‘dream team’ of Kealan McShea, Connor McKenzie, Lewis McCartney and Oisin McManus followed up their Ulster Age Group Gold medal with a superb silver at Irish championships in the 4 x 100m freestyle on the opening day.

On day three of the event, the boys competed in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay and finished a very creditable fourth overall with outstanding individual performances in this tough team event. Then on the final day of the Irish finals in Dublin, they also beat the rest of the Ulster clubs to bring the bronze medal home in the 4 x 100m Medley relay following home Portmarnock and Aer Lingus.

Oisin Mc Manus travelled to Dublin’s NAC for his third outing at the Championships in three years.

His first event was the 100m breaststroke, not normally a strong event for Oisin, but he performed well with a personal best time improvement of 3.02 secs. In the 100m butterfly he again posted a personal best improvement of 0.95 secs. In the 1,500m freestyle, Oisin finished in sixth place overall with a time of 18.09.42mins - a huge PB improvement of 21.69 seconds.

On day three, Oisin lined out for the 200m Individual Medley and, in this race which tests swimmers proficiency in all four strokes, he again improved on his entry time to finish ninth overall. This qualified him for the final later in the evening where he further improved on his time. Oisin had entered this event 17th in Ireland and now moved up to ninth place, but in second place among the 14 year olds. Oisin’s last individual event of the championships was the 400m freestyle, and despite being his seventh race in four days, he pulled of a fantastic swim with a time of 4:38.75mins, a new PB by some 7.81secs.

Competing for the third consecutive year at these championships was 15-year-old Caitlin Love and 16-year-old Sorcha Lavelle. They were joined in the senior section of the competition by Rachel Evans (15). The girls put in solid performances swimming in a range of events over the five days however were unable to challenge for medals with over 60 competitors in each event. The three girls were joined by fellow Lakelander, Caitlin Martin, to compete in the 16&Over Girls 4 x 100m freestyle relay. They set a new club record and enjoyed the comradery while competing.

Kealan McShea (14) competing in his second Division One swim meet, entered four events plus three relays. On Friday, he swam close to the one minute mark in the 100m freestyle to a new PB of 1.00.27 and followed this up with a strong 200IM swim.

On Saturday, he narrowly missed out on the 100m backstroke final where hundredths of a second separated many swimmers to finish 14th overall in a new PB of 1.07.91.

The 200m backstroke saw another good swim resulting in a PB and a time of 2.30.30.

15-year-old Connor McKenzie’s dream was to make it to Division One and to swim 100m freestyle in under 1 min when he started competing two years ago. Connor achieved this and much more by qualifying for the 50m and 100m freestyle and 100m fly and finishing with PBs in every swim. He loved the experience from start to finish Lewis McCartney was competing in nine events in total over the five days; six individual and three relays. His 100m and 200m breaststroke times showed great improvements along with good swims in the 200m and 1,500m freestyle.

Ben Lynch (13) only returned to the pool a week ago after breaking his kneecap in a school GAA match in May. He decided to only compete in one event and was just glad to be recovering well enough to be able to take part. Jack Maravelakis was unable to compete due to illness.

The swimmers are grateful as always to Enniskillen Lakelanders for giving them the structure to train and compete at the highest National level.

Under inspirational new coach Rob Eynon, who has made a massive impact since arriving in January, they are looking forward to a short break before September 2017 when training will start again culminating in the Irish Summer Nationals in July 2018.