Castlebar Swimming Club
Swimming Intervarsities
9, Mar 2011 - 18:09

A group of five, present and past swimmers from Castlebar Swimming Club took part in the Irish Swimming and Lifesaving Intervarsities in Kilkenny, each representing their respective colleges. The event hosted by NUI Maynooth (NUIM), proved to be a great success with most of the Universities and Institutes of Technology present. For the course of this event the Castlebar swimmers had to set their club loyalties, and in Sarah and James Caulfield's case family loyalty aside and give it their all for their colleges.

Friday evening saw the start of the competition with the swimming heats - and what a start it proved to be. Competition was fierce with many National Champions in attendance including Olympian Aisling Cooney (UCD). However, the Castlebar crew held their own and in some cases racing against each other in the same events to reach the finals session on Saturday morning.

The finals session kicked off, and all of a sudden the medals started to flow, and with that points for the colleges. It was proving to be a tight battle for the overall title, with a dog fight between reigning Champions NUIM and UCD for the top honours. The best women's team was won out in the end by UCD. The award for best men's team, however, proved to be a lot closer. Going into the final relay event there was only half a point separating NUIM and UCD men's team. However thanks to a superb showing in the relay UCD pulled ahead to take all three top honours.

The weekend concluded with a gala dinner and the presentation of the awards to the respective colleges. A special word of thanks must go to their college coaches and Castlebar club coach Marian English for all their hard work and determination. It is a credit to the swimmers that they are still training and competing even with the pressures associated with college life. Fair play to one and all.