Junior and Student Swimmers ready to compete

A 10 strong Irish swimming team will begin competition tomorrow, Wednesday, at the European Junior Swimming Championships in the Termy Maltanskie Sports Complex in Poznan, Poland. The team, led by Pearse McGuigan as head coach and assisted by Johnny Powell, will compete from the 10th - 14th July.

510 swimmers (285 in the men's events and 225 in the women's) from 42 of the 51 LEN Member Federations will compete over 5 days of competition. Home team Poland, with 44 competitors, has entered the largest team. Eligible age groups are 17‐18 for men (born 1995‐1996) and 15‐16 for women (born 1997‐1998).

Speaking before the event Swim Ireland National Performance Director Peter Banks said "This is a great opportunity for our young swimmers to experience European competition at a high level. We have a mix of experienced swimmers that competed at European Juniors in 2012 in Belgium as well as some first timers and we are hopeful for a number of top 20 (semi-final) and top 10 (final) performances over the 5 days".

Olympians Sycerika McMahon and Grainne Murphy have both won medals at the European Junior Championships, the last stepping stone for swimmers before Senior International Competition.

The team are: Dearbhail McNamara (Westport SC), Clodagh Flood (Tallaght SC/NAC PC), Brendan Gibbons (Athlone SC/NAC PC), Mary Kate McDowell (Bangor SC), Gemma Kane (Bangor SC), Brian O'Sullivan (NAC SC/UL PC), Sarah Kelly (Comans SC), David O'Sullivan (Galway SC/Connacht PC), Laoise Fleming (Kells SC/NAC PC) and Lydia Kehoe (New Ross SC). All swimmers are members of Swim Irelands Senior and Youth Development Squads.