Enniskillen Lakelanders swimming club have been largely absent from the local press in 2020/21 as together with many sports, they've battled to stay active during the severe restrictions on indoor sports activity.

This is now changing as restrictions are gradually lifted, a process that has started with national level, elite swimmers. And so it was that the local club were  well represented in Dublin last week as  16-year old’s Cora Rooney & Ellie McCartney flew the Fermanagh colours in Ireland’s biggest swim event in history - The Irish National Team Trials, which saw Ireland hosting their first ever Olympic Trials at the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin.

First up to start the trials for Enniskillen Lakelander’s SC was Ballyshannon girl, Cora Rooney racing 100m Backstroke alongside Olympic hopeful Danielle Hill, with Cora completing the final with a great personal best of 1.05.47.  Cora’s technical skill approach really shone through later in her 200m Backstroke with RTE’s commentator Nick O’Hare complimenting her stroke and efficiency plus stating Cora will be ‘one of the stars of the future’ and she has ‘textbook backstroke finish’ as well as compliments on her turns.  Cora raced all three 200m back races by herself which is difficult, but she and her coach were incredibly pleased as she was just 1.32s outside her personal best.  

Enniskillen Lakelanders swimming club have been largely absent from the local press in 2020/21 as together with many sports, they've battled to stay active during the severe restrictions on indoor sports activity.

This is now changing as restrictions are gradually lifted, a process that has started with national level, elite swimmers. And so it was that the local club were  well represented in Dublin last week as  16-year old’s Cora Rooney & Ellie McCartney flew the Fermanagh colours in Ireland’s biggest swim event in history - The Irish National Team Trials, which saw Ireland hosting their first ever Olympic Trials at the National Aquatic Centre, Dublin.

First up to start the trials for Enniskillen Lakelander’s SC was Ballyshannon girl, Cora Rooney racing 100m Backstroke alongside Olympic hopeful Danielle Hill, with Cora completing the final with a great personal best of 1.05.47.  Cora’s technical skill approach really shone through later in her 200m Backstroke with RTE’s commentator Nick O’Hare complimenting her stroke and efficiency plus stating Cora will be ‘one of the stars of the future’ and she has ‘textbook backstroke finish’ as well as compliments on her turns.  Cora raced all three 200m back races by herself which is difficult, but she and her coach were incredibly pleased as she was just 1.32s outside her personal best.  

Ellie Mc Cartney, no stranger to the local press begun her event with the 100m Breaststroke where she competed alongside current Champion Mona Mc Sharry to finish with a quaification for the 100m Breaststroke final on Wednesday evening with a great time of 1.12.70, just outside her current personal best time.  This was a fantastic achievement for 16yr old Ellie, when consideration is given to the major disruption in her normal schedule in the past year.  Next up for Ellie was the 200m Individual Medley (IM), in which she swam the heats, semi-finals and finals finishing on this year’s personal best of 2.23.77.  RTE’s Nick O’Hare was again full of praise for Ellie’s IM race on Thursday morning’s heats, stating it was a ‘super swim’ with particularly good Breaststroke and ‘beautiful breathing technique on front crawl’. 

The lakelanders can be proud that both ladies raced their respective heats and qualified for semi final and finals in all their events, again a remarkable achievement after such a year of training disruption.  The National Team Trials were held for all the top Junior & Senior swimmers in Ireland who qualified to do so with senior swimmers aiming to qualify for Tokyo Olympics 2021, and the Junior swimmers hopeful for European Junior Qualifying times. The experience the Junior swimmers received from this meet was great preparation for Olympic Time Trials in 3 years’ time as Paris 2024 hopefuls.

Lakelanders Coach accompanying both swimmers Sinead Donagher praised their efforts saying, 'both girls approached this meet with great positivity and support towards each other and took away excellent experience in preparation for their careers in swimming'. Whilst Lakelanders Chair Sara lannon welcomed their success at national level stating, 'Ellie and Cora's efforts and performances will be a great inspiration to all our club members who cannot wait to get back to the water soon to resume their training', no stranger to the local press begun her event with the 100m Breaststroke where she competed alongside current Champion Mona Mc Sharry to finish with a quaification for the 100m Breaststroke final on Wednesday evening with a great time of 1.12.70, just outside her current personal best time.  This was a fantastic achievement for 16yr old Ellie, when consideration is given to the major disruption in her normal schedule in the past year.  Next up for Ellie was the 200m Individual Medley (IM), in which she swam the heats, semi-finals and finals finishing on this year’s personal best of 2.23.77.  RTE’s Nick O’Hare was again full of praise for Ellie’s IM race on Thursday morning’s heats, stating it was a ‘super swim’ with particularly good Breaststroke and ‘beautiful breathing technique on front crawl’. 

The lakelanders can be proud that both ladies raced their respective heats and qualified for semi final and finals in all their events, again a remarkable achievement after such a year of training disruption.  The National Team Trials were held for all the top Junior & Senior swimmers in Ireland who qualified to do so with senior swimmers aiming to qualify for Tokyo Olympics 2021, and the Junior swimmers hopeful for European Junior Qualifying times. The experience the Junior swimmers received from this meet was great preparation for Olympic Time Trials in 3 years’ time as Paris 2024 hopefuls.

Lakelanders Coach accompanying both swimmers Sinead Donagher praised their efforts saying, 'both girls approached this meet with great positivity and support towards each other and took away excellent experience in preparation for their careers in swimming'. Whilst Lakelanders Chair Sara lannon welcomed their success at national level stating, 'Ellie and Cora's efforts and performances will be a great inspiration to all our club members who cannot wait to get back to the water soon to resume their training'