Medals for Rachel Evans and Caoimhe Leonard were the main headline performances as five swimmers from Fermanagh travelled to the University of Limerick Sports Arena to take part in the at the weekend.

Elsewhere there were excellent swims from Kealan McShea, Ben Lynch and Caitlin Martin who all produced personal best performances in the heat of battle at these top class championships which are an important stepping stone to the very of Irish competitive swimming.

The four day event commenced on Thursday and saw 520 swimmers compete from across the country.

Lakelander Rachel Evans learned a lot over the course of her three day event. Having qualified third fastest in both the 100m breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley events (hitting Division One times in the process) she finished 7th in both finals. However, she made amends with some style in the 100m freestyle.

Rachel qualified second in the freestyle but this time backed it up with a super swim in the final and lift a well-deserved silver medal.

Caoimhe Leonard (13) from Arney, competing for her swimming club Sliabh Beagh in Monaghan was delighted with her Irish bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke event and in a new personal best time of 1.25.50. This was a fantastic achievement for this young swimmer who was competing in the 13-14 year old category.

Caoimhe who competed in five events in total over the weekend also made it to the final of the 200m Breaststroke event and secured a Division One qualifying time for next season in the 15-16yrs category for the 100m Breaststroke. Three other Enniskillen Lakelanders competed and did so with distinction.

12-year-old Kealan McShea entered five events in the 12/13 year old age group in Limerick. His first swim on day one saw him smash his previous best time in the 200m free by 7.76 sec to finish in the top ten and first reserve for the final in a time of 2.31.25. He followed that up with another great swim in the 100m back crawl with a new personal best again achieving a top ten place and first reserve for final.

Day two held some drama for Kealan as his great form continued by qualifying fifth for the final of the 200m backstroke. His massive personal best of nine seconds in a time of 2.45.55 was overshadowed by the time boards technical error of marking him as disqualified!

With the help of Ulster coach Mark Craig he picked himself up to finish in seventh place in the final. His fourth event saw him achieve his fourth personal best of the weekend, dropping 2.42 seconds before finishing just outside the top ten in a time of 2.56.58 in the 200IM.

Day three saw Kealan again achieve a personal best by two seconds in the 200m freestyle thereby completing a good weekend of swimming as this relatively new swimmer remains just a couple of seconds short of four Division One times.

After only starting to swim competitively this year, Ben Lynch (11) qualified to compete in three events. On Friday Ben picked up a seven second personal best in the 200m freestyle finishing in a time of 2.39.49. The following day he knocked 13 seconds of his previous best time in the 400m freestyle and later that morning swam another personal best of four seconds in the 200m backcrawl.

Overall Ben enjoyed his first experience of competing at this level and is already looking forward to next year.

After a tough year, Caitlin Martin qualified for two events, the 100m backcrawl and 200m backcrawl and she achieved personal best times in both races. Caitlin saw this as a wonderful opportunity to meet swimmers and coaches from all over Ireland, learning a great deal from this. Caitlin is looking forward to getting back into swimming next season.