SWIMMING Irish Swimming Round-up from British Youth & National Championships

The British Youth & National Championships concluded today at the Ponds Forge Pool in Sheffield following 6 exciting days of competition. Irish swimmers competing at the event performed strongly throughout and took their good form into the weekend's action, qualifying for finals, winning medals and breaking Irish Records to mark further success for Irish swimming on the international stage on the day the Irish also concluded their most successful World Swimming Championships in Rome. All teams arrive home in Dublin airport tomorrow.

Michael Dawson of Ards narrowly missed out on another medal today in Sheffield in the final of the Men's open 50m Breaststroke, finishing 4th in a time of 29.05. Leo Delaney, who is based at the Limerick High Performance Centre, qualified for the final of the open 400m Individual Medley and finished in 7th place in a time of 4:36.73. Leo also finished in 20th place in the open 200m Backstroke (2:08.56). New Ross swimmer Donal Drought was 11th in the 15/16 years category of the same event (2:10.20).

Another Limerick High Performance Centre swimmer, Lorna Cummins of Sunday's Well in Cork swam strongly to take bronze in the open 200m Butterfly final yesterday, touching in a time of 2:14.58, whilst Andrew Meegan of Aer Lingus also finished with a bronze medal in the open 1500m Freestyle in a time of 15:48.41. Leander swimmer Conor Donnelly also competed in this event, finishing a respectable 20th with a time of 16:15.43. Emily Heyburn finished 9th in the final of the 14/15 years 200m Butterfly in a time of 2:22.40, having recorded a 2:21.88 in the heats. Katie Reid was 19th in the open 50m Backstroke (31.50) and Seamus Stacey of NUIM Devils touched in 24.67 in the open 50m Freestyle.

Friday's finals session included a 7th place finish for Shauna O'Brien in the 14/15 years 100m Butterfly final (1:03.83) whilst Nicholas Quinn (Castlebar) finished in 9th place in the 15/16 years 200m Individual Medley final (2:10.16). Sycerika McMahon, swimming for Leander swimming club, continued her winning ways this weekend, taking gold in the 14/15 years 200m Freestyle final (2:02.84) and adding 3 more silver medals to those won earlier in the week in the 14/15 years 200m Butterfly (2:15.97); 200m Individual Medley (2:18.20); and 400m Freestyle (4:18.29).