This year Swim Ireland (SI) changed the previous Division 1 and 2 format and instead split the Nationals into an Age Group Meet (12 to 14 year olds) held in the UL pool (July 6 to 9) and a Youth and Senior Summer Nationals (15 and over) scheduled for July 26 to 30 in Dublin. (Incidentally, this is the same format as is used in the USA.) The qualifying times were relaxed for these events this year leading to a huge entry but will be made much harder next year. Some 700 swimmers competed in Limerick with a team of 15 from SWSC. 

Our club results (see Meet Mobile and SI Live Timing) exceeded our expectations. There were 68 PBs in 113 individual swims, and since many of the entry times were short course conversions (over optimistic?) the number of best Long Course best times greatly exceeded this number. 

There were many highlights:

• Both Aoife Gardiner and Caoilinn O’Connor achieved National Squad QTs in the 100 back stroke, and are very close on the required second event; the 100 free in the case of Aoife and 200 back for Caoilinn. These times will be registered with SI.
• The girls mentioned above combined with Liam O’Driscoll and Thomas Bugler to win both the 13/14 Mixed 400 Medley and Freestyle relays. Both of these events were won by the narrowest of margins and the final legs raised the biggest cheers of the meet! These final freestyle legs both featured Aoife. In the Medley she started behind two other girls and snatched first place, swimming two seconds faster that her PB. In the freestyle relay she started several meters ahead of two boys and managed to hold them off, swimming another second faster than her previous PB. 
• Caoilinn, Liam and Thomas also won several individual medals: Caoilinn-first in the 100 and 200 back and third in the 400IM; Liam-second in the 400 free and third in the 200 fly, and Thomas-third in the 200 and 400 free and 100 fly.

Well done all!

However, on a cautionary note for the future, all but three of our team were in their 14^th year (born 2009) and girls predominated. We will have to work hard to address this for next year (our centenary year). Essentially, we need four or five boys and girls qualifying in each of the 12, 13 and 14 age groups (born 2012, 2011 and 2010)!

Tom Cross – July 2023

At 26 qualifiers (16 females and 10 males) SWSC had its biggest team ever travelling to this year’s Open Long Course Nationals, held in the National Aquatic Centre Dublin from April 1 to 5. Because this meet serves as trials for International Competitions like the Olympics and World Championships there are no National club relays. These are held instead at the McCullagh meet, where it will be recalled our Women won National Gold in the 800 FR and were second in the 400 FR. Detailed results are available on Meet Mobile and on Swim Ireland’s Live Timing but here are some very successful statistics for our team, many of whom were in their 14^th year and competing in their first Open Nationals.  

There were 49 Personal Best (PB) swims. Most of the team had at least one PB and a few were remarkable in swimming PBs every time they raced. Particularly good were the five swimmers who participated in the recent elite training camp in Tenerife. There were 47 finalists over the five days (10 in Day 1; 5 in Day 2; 10 in Day 3 and 11 in Days 4 and 5) in the three categories of finals- A, Junior (Girls 17 and under and Boys 18 and under) and B. Medals were only awarded for the three fastest Seniors and Juniors. Most of our swimmers qualified for finals and largely were faster than in the heats and often won, particularly in B finals. Medal winners in the Senior category were Sharon Semchiy, silver in the 200 butterfly, and Liam Custer, silver in the 800 freestyle and bronze in the 200 butterfly and 200 and 400 Individual Medley. At Junior level Isabel Kidney won four medals; silver in the 50 and 100 breast stroke and 200 IM and bronze in the 50 free style; while Antonina Sech won silver in the 200 backstroke. 

Several swimmers are very near Swim Ireland Performance Pathway times and will have their next opportunity to achieve these times at the Summer Age Group (14 & U) and Senior (15 and O) Summer Nationals in July, which are the most important meets of the season for most of our swimmers. Meanwhile we have the Munster LC Championships in UL in early May and the Michael Bowles SC meet later that month. For the latter , which we have won for many years, we want our team to cover all events to maximise points and to swim six events or more if competitive for Senior or Junior Individual titles. In June there will be the Warm Weather camp in Spain where we will have our biggest group at 42 swimmers. SWSC swimmers are doing very well but are mostly just below National team qualification, where the majority come from Leinster and Ulster. So, we need to improve faster! Swimmers must make every possible session arriving early and leaving late. Once there, they need to work as hard as possible but also think what they are doing and develop targets and race plans. 

– Tom Cross Aril 2023