There was two bronze medals for local swimmers at last weekend's Irish Minor Schools Championships in Galway with Caragh Leonard taking third spot in the 50m Freestyle while Dara McGandy powered his way to third place in the 50m Breaststroke.

Following on from her success in the Ulster Minor Schools Caragh Leonard was flying the flag again for St Mary's, Mullymeske. Caragh competed in the 9 and under category in the 50m Butterfly and the 50m Freestyle. She was unlucky not to make the final of the 50m Butterfly making first reserve, but the icing on the cake came when she took the bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle. The finish was so close in this event that all three medalists finished within the same second. Caragh was glad to shave another half second off her personal best time in this event which is now 37.41secs. This is a highly competitive gala with club swimmers from every corner of the country competing and all credit must go to her coach Dana Leonard from Sliabh Beagh Swimming Club.

Dara McGandy, representing Tattygar Primary School, did his school proud when he stormed to take the bronze in the Boys 11 and under 50m Breaststroke in a personal best time of 42.11secs. Four Ulster swimmers occupied the first four places in this exciting final proving that Ulster still possess the cream of young breaststroke talent in Ireland!

Others to make an impression at the championship included Meabh Dolan, another talented young swimmer representing St. Patrick's Mullinaskea. She had a great swim in the girls 10 and under Backstroke, swimming a personal best in a time of 50.28secs. Meabh is rapidly improving with every gala she takes part in and and has a promising future in swimming ahead of her.

And in the last session of the Championships Peter Dolan, older brother of Meabh, also representing St. Patrick's Mullinaskea, just missed out in the final of the boys 11 and under 100m Individual Melody finishing seventh overall in a fantastic personal time of 1min 30.27secs taking a massive five seconds of his previous best time. Peter is such a versatile swimmer in all four strokes and in the last individual swim of the meet he came 10th overall in the boys 11 and under butterfly in another personal best time of 43.82secs.

The future looks good for swimming in Fermanagh proving that all the hard work and dedication is paying off when they go to represent their school or club.