SWIMMING Cooney continues fine form in Galway

The Swim Ireland Irish Short Course National Swimming Championships continued today at the Leisureland Swimming Complex in Salthill. Olympian Aisling Cooney picked up where she left off yesterday by helping her club ESB to victory in the women's 800m freestyle relay. European SC Championship bound Cooney shut out the competition and along with team mates Emma McShane; India McGlynn and Gillian Gavaghan finished first in a time of 8:32.38. Local favorites Galway Swimming Club finished in second place, amid much excitement from the partisan local crowd, with Saoirse McGrath finishing off a fine team performance in a time of 8:44.30. Third place went to the Aer Lingus team (8:50.45) led off by Niamh McDonnell.

The final of the men's 200m breaststroke was another highlight of the evening, with a nail-biting finish between Dan Sweeney of Sunday's Well swimming club in Cork and Castlebar swimmer Nicholas Quinn. The pair were inseparable for the entire race but Sweeney just pushed ahead in the closing stages to take the spoils in 2:22.01. Quinn finished just behind in a time of 2:22.42 with Aer Lingus swimmer Edward O'Neill in third place (2:26.24).

The final of the men's 400m freestyle also produced a close finish with Ards swimmer Curtis Coulter taking the crown, touching in a time of 4:02.31 ahead of Conor Turner of Aer Lingus (4:02.70). Athlone swimmer Brendan Gibbons was third in 4:04.94. The local crowd had further reason to cheer when Galway Swim Club swept to victory in the 800m Freestyle relay event. Foursome Kevin McGlade; Cian Duffy, Jack Keogh and David O'Sullivan finished in a time of 8:00.96 ahead of Aer Lingus in second and Trojan Swim Club in third.

The women's 400m freestyle was won easily by Kingdom swimmer Niamh O'Sullivan in a time of 4:18.35, almost 8 seconds ahead of Waterford Crystal swimmer Shauna O'Brien (4:26.30) with Therese Corry of Portmarnock in third (4:27.79). Aer Lingus swimming club continued to place among the medals in the women's 200m breaststroke final, Catrina English taking the national title well ahead of the rest of the field. Her finishing time of 2:33.85 was well ahead of second placed Alison Todd of City of Belfast (2:40.10) and Niamh Bryson of Templeogue (2:42.45).

The competition continues tomorrow with highlights including the final of the men's and women's 50m freestyle.