Galway Swimming Club made its mark at the Irish Youth and Senior National Swimming Championships in Dublin,
The club bagged four national titles, seven silver placings, four bronzes medals, 18 finalist positions, and set five new Connacht records over the four-day competitions last weekend.
The club started strongly on the opening day with two golds, two silvers, and a bronze. Emma Porter took the open 50m breaststroke gold in 33.79 seconds, a new personal best, and then joined her team members Dairne Ryan, Katie McDonough, and Angela O'Connor in winning the senior girls’ 4x100m freestyle relay by more than two seconds from last year’s winners Glenalbyn from Dublin.
Jack Keogh set a new u-19 Connacht record of 2.19.25 in the junior boys’ 200m butterfly and claimed silver in the u-16 boys’ category. Dairne Ryan took silver in the 200m senior women's freestyle, and Katie McDonough won a hard-earned bronze medal in the juniors girls’ 100 backstroke.
Another four medals were added the following day - the first in the u-16 boys’ 100m freestyle in which Kevin McGlade won a bronze medal in a personal best time of 56.20. In the open girls’ 100m freestyle Dairne Ryan added a bronze to her previous day’s silver in 59.00 In the breaststroke, Emma Kate Lally won silver in the u-16 girls and in the senior category, Galway won its third gold of the championships when Emma Porter stormed to a 1.5 second personal best time and her second individual gold in a superb 1.14.48.
Day three was the day when the senior girls took to the podium, winning the 4x100m medley relay. Katie McDonough (backstroke ), Emma Porter (breaststroke ), Angela O'Connor (butterfly ) and Dairne Ryan (freestyle ) won their second national title. The club also picked up two silvers - in the u-18 boys’ 100m butterfly where Darragh Waters clocked a personal bestof 1.00.16, and in the 400m women’s freestyle where Dairne Ryan set a personal best time of 4.30.81. In the same event Jack Keogh put in a gutsy last 100metres in the u-16 boys’ event to win bronze in a personal best time of 4.23.63.
The club finished the championshipes on the final day when Emma Kate Lally added to her medal tally with a well-deserved bronze medal in the u-16 girls’ 200m breaststroke, while Dairne Ryan claimed a fourth individual medal when winning silver in the girls 50m freestyle.
Head coach Pearse McGuigan said the championships had been the “most satisfying end of year team performances in some years”.
