SWIMMING Banks Leads European Swim Squad

The Irish swimming squad led by Peter Banks, National Performance Director, begins its campaign tomorrow at the 13th LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships in Istanbul, Turkey where 10 Irish swimmers (6 men and 4 women) will be in action. The competition runs from Thursday 10th December to Sunday 13th December in the 25m indoor Abdi Ipekci Arena.

The 4 day event is unique in that it will be the final major European swimming event before the FINA ban on swimsuits on 1st January 2010 and when the new FINA list of approved suits will come into effect.

Eight of the squad members who competed at this summer's World Championships will be in action in Istanbul tomorrow. Some of the squad members have already tested the waters this season at events such as the Berlin World Cup, British University & Colleges Sport Championships (BUCS) in the UK and most recently at the Irish Short Course Nationals, held at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) three weeks ago.

Commenting from Istanbul, Peter Banks said "This competition from a European perspective is going to be really interesting; there'll be swimmers wearing old suits, new suits and of course some will be rested and some will not be. This is the time of the year when swimmers are generally in their heaviest training so to pull off some fast swims this weekend will be a great boost leading into the New Year."

Donal O'Neill, Aisling Cooney, Clare Dawson and Niamh O'Sullivan have all shown remarkable form over the past number of weeks. O'Neill swam lifetime bests in his premier events (50m and 100m backstroke) at the short course Irish Nationals. Cooney followed suit with an impressive 59.89 time in the 100m backstroke final at the NAC. Clare Dawson swam a lifetime best and new Irish Senior Record of 1.57.68 in the 200m freestyle at the BUCS and Niamh O'Sullivan also broke an Irish Senior Record last month finishing in 11th place in the 800m Freestyle (8:38.02) at the Berlin World Cup.

Issued by Swim Ireland, whose High Performance Programme is supported and funded by the Irish Sports Council