Fermanagh was well represented at the Irish Age Group and Summer Open Championships at the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin last week as they pitted their skills against nearly 900 swimmers from not only Ireland but diverse locations such as Canada, Germany, Oman, Poland, Qatar, UAE and UK.

Five days of intense competition at the highest level brought out the best in all the local swimmers with the number of personal bests indicative of this while Alannah Leonard won an excellent bronze medal in the 100M backstroke, the Arney swimmmer winning for the seventh consecutive season at these championships.

The Enniskillen Lakelanders showed their progress of recent season by fielding a ten strong team at the championships and were able to enter relay teams for the first time at the championships while the Leonard sisters, Caragh and Alannah were representing Monaghan club Sliabh Beagh.

Despite a disrupted preparation due to exams, Alannah Leonard, who was swimming in the Open category, claimed her bronze medal in the 100m backstroke in a season’s best time of 1.07.59. Alannah now has an anxious wait on exam results having been offered a Sports Scholarship from the National University of Ireland Galway.

Her younger sister Caragh had qualified for no less than eight events in this competition. Caragh produced some fantastic personal best times in the competition and considering she has another year within this age group she will be well placed to contest for the top three positions next season. Caragh saved her best performance of the competition for the final day when she produced yet another personal best time in the highly competitive 100m freestyle in a time of 1.07.57, this time has also secured her a position on the Ulster Youth Squad.

10-year-old Lakelander Ellie McCartney was the youngest participant at the entire Championships and was competing in the 12 and under section but wanted to make an impact. Ellie was swimming in three events and recorded personals bests in each of them as well as reaching two finals. Her first event was the 200m IM and Ellie recorded a new PB of 2:56.82 moving up 10 places from her seeding. On Friday the young competitor swam an excellent 100m breaststroke to qualify for the evening 12 & Under final as 10th seed. Later that evening Ellie had a terrific battle and in a race with seven 12 year olds and two 11 year olds she improved her seeding to finish ninth fastest in Ireland.

On Saturday Ellie was able to repeat the feat and qualify for the 200m breaststroke final – also in 10th position. The young Enniskillen Lakelander showed why her nick name is EllieFish with a fantastic final swim against older swimmers to swim the four lengths in a time of 3:03.46 – a new 3.78 second PB – enabling Ellie to finish 6th overall. Following last years unofficial title of fastest nine year old in 100m and 200m breaststroke in Ireland, Ellie was able to add fastest 10 Year Old in both these strokes this year as well as in the 200m Individual Medley. This was a terrific end to a successful season for the Ulster Age Group and Irish Schools champion and Ellie is looking forward to a well earned rest before the next season begins.

16-year-old Natasha Love returned to the pool after a three month break due to exams. swimming in the 100m and 200m backstroke for ages 15 and over. She showed great determination to maintain the form from Ulster Age Groups where she was a silver medalist. In 100m backstroke, she maintained her PB but it was the 200m where she made the final. In the final Natasha faced stiff International competition in the open category and swam a new PB to finish the top Ulster swimmer aged 16 and 7th overall in Ireland. A fantastic achievement.

Sorcha Lavelle, competing in the highly competitive Girls 13/14 Age Group, put in a fantastic four days of swimming, achieving seven personal bests in her seven races and secured a place in the final of the 200m breaststroke.

Her first day saw her swim the 200m IM and 400m freestyle where she put in good solid performances finishing top 20 in the IM and dropping 10.6 seconds off her freestyle entry time. Then in the 100m butterfly closely followed by the 100m breaststroke where Sorcha swam a two second PB in both events and narrowly missing out on a final in the breaststroke by one second.

Day three saw Sorcha’s best swim in the 200m breaststroke where she smashed her entry time by 7.5 seconds, winning her heat and a place in the breaststroke final that evening ranking her in 7th position. She gave it her all in the final, competing against Ireland’s finest and came in a fantastic fifth position a great achievement for the fourteen year old. On the final day of competition Sorcha competed in the 100m Freestyle and 400m IM again achieving great PBs. This is a fabulous end to the season for Sorcha and she can hope to continue in this fine form when the season begins again.

13 year old Caitlin Love, was swimming in the Irish Age Groups for the first time having qualified for the 100m and 200m butterfly and 200m IM. Caitlin achieved new PBs in the 200m Butterfly and 200m IM. She will have benefited from the experience and will be swimming in the same age group next year with the hope of improving on these times.

13 year old Dara McGandy was competing in his first Irish Age Groups and really enjoyed the experience and the occasion of such a top event. Dara qualified for four swims and during the competition he continued his good run of form of late. In the 200m breaststroke Dara had a good swim finishing a second off his personal best time.

In the 100m freestyle Dara finished in a time of 1 min 07.23 secs the exact time he qualified for this event four weeks ago. In the 200m freestyle Dara finished a second outside his personal best time and in his final individual swim, the 100m breaststroke, Dara had a terrific swim and finished in a time of 1min 27.48 a second inside his personal best time. Dara is now looking forward to a short break and then will be focusing and another swimming season hoping to add to his success of last season.

Oisin Mc Manus, made the early morning trip to the NAC in Dublin on Wednesday flushed with pride at having made it to Division One, but also painfully aware that his age at this year’s event meant he would be swimming against opponents up to one and a half years his senior. Oisin lined up in lane five to pull off a fantastic 400m freestyle with a time of 5 mins 10 seconds which meant a huge five second PB and a validation of his place in the championships. In his second event of the meeting, the 200m backstroke, Oisin had gained another PB by 1.75 seconds. 2014/15 has been an amazing year for Oisin with qualification and participation in IAG div 1 giving him the personal reward that every athlete craves.

Lewis McCartney only gained his qualifying times before Christmas and subsequently achieved his Division Onee time in May. This improvement in swimming times is testament to the amount of time that Lewis has dedicated to the sport over the last nine months. Having leapfrogged Division Two his direct entry into the premier competition is one which he relished. Lewis swam in the first event of the championships and competed well in his heat and gained valuable experience, as he will compete in the same age group next year.

Niamh O’Kane also only recently gained her qualifying times and Division One times. Niamh entered the 100m butterfly and competed well in the heat and she also gained that valuable top-level competition experience and showed that she is very capable of competing at this level. More hours in the pool with mean improved technique and stamina along with her natural strength will see Niamh achieve even more next season.

Paddy Keaveney has competed in the Irish Nationals for the past four years. He has enjoyed good success over this period. This year he competed in the following events – 200m and 400m Individual Medley, 100m Butterfly, 100m Breast, 50m and 100m. Paddy swam well in the 100m freestyle and his 400 IM was good and on his personal best. Paddy’s best performance came in the 100m butterfly where he produced a personal best in the preliminaries and then swam the final in a fantastic new best time, now agonisingly close to the magic one minute. Paddy swam the 50m freestyle just about on his personal best. In the final stages of the championship, tiredness took its toll and Paddy swam slightly below par in the 200m IM.

The Enniskillen Lakelanders were able to enter teams into the 15 & under boys freestyle and 14 and under girls Medley relays in a Division One competition. Paddy Keaveney (15), Dara McGandy (13), Lewis McCartney and Oisin McCaffrey McManus (both 12) did the club proud in an older and much more experienced field.

The Girls Medley began with Caitlin Love (13) doing backcrawl, Ellie McCartney (10) doing breaststroke, Sorcha Lavelle (13) and Rachel Evans (13) finishing with the freestyle leg – all were a credit to both their club and their county and in so doing rounded off a great championship.