20 Oct 2021

Apsiring Champs Rise Above in Lisburn

13 local swimmers from Enniskillen Lakelanders recently competed in the first of Swim Ulster’s ‘Aspiring Champions’ Meet Series held at the Lagan Valley Leisureplex, Lisburn. This new meet series from Swim Ireland places a renewed focus on team performance as well as individual achievement and for many of the Lakelanders’, this was their first competitive outing in 20 months. So spirits were high as they left a foggy Fermanagh early on Saturday morning for the 2 day event.

Niamh O’Donnell (12), the youngest Lakelander competing finished the weekend on a high having achieved fantastic PBs in all 4 of her events. In the 100m Breaststroke, 100m Freestyle, 100m Medley and 100m Backstroke she showed great improvements across all strokes.

Kate McDade (13) approached this event with new found positivity where she achieved significant PBs across all 5 of her individual events, most notably an 18s PB in 100m Breaststroke, 9s PB in 100m IM and an 8s PB in the 200m Freestyle. Kate also joined her older team mates for the Medley Relay, gaining great experience and a confidence boost for future events.

Senan Burke (13), attending a competitive gala for the first time gained lots of experience in his two races, the 100m Breaststroke and 100m Freestyle. Words of wisdom from Olympian Danielle Hill after his races will do doubt stay with this young man as he continues his swimming journey.

James Mongan (14) also performed well at this meet where he had impressive swims in the 200m Freestyle and the 100m Backstroke events, taking over 11 seconds off his time in both events. A great start to his season.

Jamie Lannon (13), one of the youngest swimmer on the Lakelanders team showed quiet determination in his 6 events achieving fast PBs in all his races and ranking top 8 in the 13-14 yr olds. Most significantly Jamie achieved his goal of breaking 30 seconds in the 50m freestyle with a time of 29.40. He followed this with a skilful swim in the 200m Freestyle finishing 2nd in a time of 2:17.70.

Hayden James (14) had a successful weekend across his 3 events. A strong swim in the 200m Freestyle saw him finish 4^th in his age group with a 0.61s PB. He again finished 4^th in the 50m Freestyle and ended the weekend on a high finishing in the top 10 with a PB of 7.63s in the 100m Freestyle.

Anna Mc Dade (15) completed 8 individual events and 2 relays, achieving PBs across all strokes entered. In her favoured Breaststroke events she was the fastest 15 year old in the 50m event and achieved a PB in the 100m finishing as the second fastest 15 year old. Best of all for Ann was achieve qualifying times for the upcoming Ulster Short Course championships in the 50m and 100m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly and 200m.

Izzy Lannon (15) thoroughly enjoyed the weekend competing in 7events and whilst her goal  had been to learn from her races, she nonetheless achieved new PBs in most of her events.
Highlights for Isobel were her performances in the 100m Freestyle and all 50,100 and 200m Backstroke events, impressively swimming a 5s PB in the 200m backcrawl. She followed this with a clever technical swim to rank 4th overall in the 400m Freestyle in the 15-16yr old category

Emilie Reihill (15) put in some pleasing performances competing across 4 individual Freestyle events and the Freestyle team relay. She achieved new Short Course PBs in all distances and was notably pleased with her performance in her first attempt at the tough 800m Freestyle with a strong consistent swim. Emilie leaves the event looking forward to Ulster Short Course and the season ahead.

Ciosa McConnell (16) joined her team mates on Sunday and competed in 3 events.  Although just outside her PBs, Ciosa was delighted to make a return to competitive swimming and looks forward to regaining her former fitness levels.

Molly Johnston (16) swam 4 events on the Saturday, 3 individual races and the girls Freestyle relay. Molly produced solid performances in the 100m Breaststroke, 100m Freestyle and 100m IM where she narrowly missed setting new PB's. Molly is looking forward to improving these times as the season progresses.

Luke Aiken (16) competed across 3 events, showed great skill in the 100m Backstroke to maintain his time with 10th place, with another PB and 10th place in his favoured event, the 100m Butterfly. His day finished with the competitive 50m Freestyle again placing 10th with another PB. Luke is looking forward to the rest of the season.

Dara Ronan (17) competed in over 10 events producing 7 Personal Bests. First was the 100m Backstroke, where he knocked a creditable 4.27s off his previous time, this good form carried into the 200m Individual Medley with a 2.13s PB. He followed this with a stunning time of 1:01.31 in his favoured 100m Butterfly and finished the day with a PB in the 200m Breaststroke. On the 2nd day of the Meet, Dara continued his good form with a 100m Breaststroke PB of 2.26, followed by 0.39 reduction for his 50m Backstroke and 2.58 for his 100m Freestyle. The demanding 400m IM was followed by a 27.57 time for the 50m Butterfly and with just enough stamina left, Dara completed his 2-day program with a fine PB of in the 100m IM.

Attending the event with her own swimmers, Lakelanders Chairperson, Sara Lannon praised the coaches and club volunteers who helped out over the 2 days but also hailed the swimmers for how they responded to the new meet format saying, 'The 13 Lakelanders here this weekend have done themselves and their club proud with amazing individual swims and exciting team relays. The team spirit throughout the 2 days was fantastic to see and I'm sure these older swimmers will bring this back to Enniskillen to energise the club as a whole'.

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