Alannah Leonard enjoyed great success at Swim Irelands Irish Age Group Championships and Summer Open meet that took place at the weekend at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.

Three medals and three personal bests ensured that the championship was another positive experience for Alannah who hopes to continue to build on this over the next 12 months.

“I’m delighted with how the weekend went. It’s another year of hard work that has paid off,” she said. “My aim was to get medals and personal bests and I won three medals and achieved three personal bests so I couldn’t have asked for any more. Next year I will go back again and I will just be looking to try and keep improving.” There was over 900 swimmers from more than 100 clubs taking part at the championships with teams from South Africa, Singapore, Oman, Dubai, Italy, England, Scotland and from all over Ireland making it the biggest yet.

Alannah (17) was joined by sisters Caoimhe (13) and Caragh (10) as part of a strong squad of 13 who took part from Sliabh Beagh Swimming Club. This was Caoimhe and Caragh’s first time at this top Irish competition and both girls performed well in each of their three events. Caragh finished top female 10 year old swimmer in the 200m Butterfly and second in the 200m Breaststroke.

Alannah didn’t fail to deliver and for the sixth consecutive year she has medalled at this National competition. Alannah has now moved into the Open category and managed to make a podium position in three of her nine events. The first came on Friday as she claimed the bronze medal in the gruelling 400m Individual Medley event. Alannah also made the 50m Backstroke final on Friday evening. This was a very exciting race the ultimate splash and dash, unfortunately with hundredths of a second separating the top swimmers Alannah didn’t manage a medal position but did make a personal best time of 31.22.

Alannah’s other medals came in the 200m Backstroke event on Saturday evening. She finished in bronze position in the open category in a season’s best time of 2.26.46. But the final drama, and best swim of the weekend, was saved until late Sunday evening when Alannah finished the 100m Backstroke and pulling the googles off to look at the results table which showed a technical error, the next few anxious minutes were rewarded with the final announcement of “silver medal position for Alannah Leonard from Sliabh Beagh in a time of 1.07.62”, this was met with tears of joy and relief. This was a fantastic way to finish the swimming season.