Swim Ireland Irish Age Groups & Summer Open

Swim Ireland's Irish Age Groups and Summer Open started Wednesday evening with the 800m Freestyle for girls and 1500m Freestyle for boys. This was the first time the distance events have been swam on a separate day, giving the swimmers a chance to target the specialised events and recover for the rest of the meet. The swims of the evening went to Antoinette Neamt (Tallaght) in the girls 800m and Brendan Gibbons (Athlone) in the boys 1500m. 13 year old Neamt cruised to victory in a time of 8.47.14, whilst Brendan dipped under the 16minute mark to take the gold with a 15.59.33.

Day 2 started and finished with a splash as we had the Men's and Women's sprinters in the Open 50m Freestyle. Ards swimmer Curtis Coulter warmed up for next week's Commonwealth Games with a lightning quick 23.23, holding off his fellow Ards and Commonwealth Games teammate Conor Munn (23.56). UCD's Michael McCarthy took the bronze in 23.56. It was another UCD swimmer who stole the show in the Women's 50m Freestyle, as Shauna O'Brien (27.78), whilst her teammate Jess Stallard (27.17) finished in third. Splitting the UCD swimmers was Galway's Kate Finn, going 26.89.

Athlone's Robbie Powell produced one of the swims of the evening with an impressive 2.10.57, holding off Lisburn's Keelan Logan (2.12.46) and Galway's Mitchell Wilson (2.17.63) to win the boys 14&U 200m butterfly. Robbie will be delighted with the swim as he heads to Canada next week to represent Ireland at the Canadian Age Group Championships. Clodagh Flood of Tallaght will be in good form before heading to Portugal next week for the Portuguese Open, she just missed the Irish Junior Record for the 100m Butterfly swimming a brilliant 1.02.90. Clodagh will be hoping to go one better next week in Oireas and break the IJR.

Clodagh was back in the pool for what was one of the most exciting races of the day, the girls 15 and over 200m Freestyle. It was a close race between Lisburn swimmer Bethany Carson, Laoise Fleming of Kells and Clodagh. Bethany held off a strong challenge from the two girls as she came home in 2.04.30, with Laoise close behind in 2.04.84, while Clodagh (2.05.32) added a bronze to her medal tally.

UCD posted the fastest time in the 4x100m Freestyle Team Relay to secure the Gold Medal in the boys 16 and over age group, swimming a combined time of 3.31.23, and just pipping the boys from Ards (3.32.56), while Galway finished third with 3.36.66. Larne were the winners of the 15 and under relay, winning comfortably in 3.55.82.

Competition continues tomorrow Friday