On Saturday, December 2, 12 swimmers from Enniskillen Lakelanders Swimming Club made their way to the beautiful facilities at Larne Leisure Centre for the second of Swim Ulster’s ‘Future Challengers’ Series of Galas.

This Gala series is for swimmers aged 10-12 and the young Lakelanders relished the opportunity for new PBs and a fun morning of competitive swimming.

Charles Armstrong (11) had a very successful morning with three top 10 finishes in the 50m Freestyle, 100m Individual Medley and 100m Breaststroke with two new PBs in the latter.

Holly Barkley (12) had three great swims, finishing 1st in her age group in the 50m Breaststroke and 2nd in the 50m Freestyle. Holly followed this with an impressive top 10 finish in the 100m Individual Medley.

Daire Burke (11) was delighted with his swims, with a six second PB in his 100m Individual Medley and Freestyle leaving him finishing 3rd in the 100m Freestyle. Daire also had a three second PB in his 100m Breaststroke.

Darragh Collins (12) also enjoyed great success finishing 2nd in 100m Breaststroke and 3rd in 100m Individual Medley. Darragh was delighted to have completed his first 200m Freestyle finishing 5th.

Clara Leonard (10) swam great and finished 2nd in her age group in all her races - 100m Individual Medley, 50m Breaststroke and 100m Freestyle. Clara received two bronze award medals for her swims.

Older sister Myleene Leonard (12) had a very successful day. Myleene was delighted to knock six seconds off her 200m Individual Medley and took two seconds off her 100m Freestyle finishing 1st and was awarded a bronze award for her time.

Martha McCreesh (12) had a great morning’s racing, coming away with two silver awards for her 200m Individual Medley and 200m Freestyle. She was delighted with a bronze award in her 100m Breaststroke. Martha was very pleased to have secured three PBs on the day.

Jessica Miller (12) had an excellent morning and was awarded a bronze medal for her 100m favoured Breaststroke. Jessica was delighted with her 1st place finish in her 50m Freestyle that she has been working hard on in training.

Crea Mullen (11) is fairly new to competitive swimming and had a very successful morning swimming. Crea finished first in the 100m Individual Medley with a three second PB. This was followed up by a 3rd place finish in 50m Breaststroke and a second place in 100m Freestyle narrowly missing a bronze award.

Anton Neal (12) showed great improvement in his age group finishing 1st in 50m Freestyle, 4th in 100m Individual Medley and 5th in 100m Breaststroke.

Younger sister Ella Neal (11) showed great success and improvement in her age group finishing in the top five in all her races - 100m Individual Medley, 50m Freestyle and 100m Breaststroke taking off a massive nine seconds.

Emma Speer (12) took a bronze award in her favourite 100m Breaststroke. She was thrilled to take a six seconds PB in her 100m Freestyle and received a bronze medal award for this too.

Team coach for the event, Aideen Speer, expressed her pride in the great progress of the young swimmers.

This was clearly evident in the collection of new PBs and medal awards making their way back to Enniskillen to the delight of Head Coach Ben Wiffen.