Castlebar Swimming Club
Castlebar Swimming News
By Linda McCaffrey
14, Dec 2003 - 23:52

The Connacht Age Groups Distance Meet was held at the Castlebar Pool on Sunday 30 November. This swim meet was held over distances from 200m to 1500m and saw swimmers from 9 clubs competing.

Castlebar swimmers were in good form with several gold medals taken, but pride of place for the day goes to Patrick Wiseman for a really gutsy swim in the 1500m (that’s 60 lengths!!) to take 1st place in the 13/14 age group. The 1500m is a demanding event but Patrick showed all his battling qualities right to the end in an inspirational swim with a time of 20.10.53mins.

James Sweeney also took gold with a well paced swim in the 1500m U12 age group in a time of 21.29.16, and Brian Moran posted an impressive personal best of 20.16.75 to take silver in the 15/16 age group.

Another demanding event the 400 IM saw some fine swims with Laura English (5.27.40) and Darragh Quinn ( 5.10.59) both taking gold in their respective girls and boys 15/16 age groups. Laura Keaveny took silver and Sarah Wiseman took bronze in the girls event also.

In the 400 F/C Darragh Quinn added another gold to his IM gold with a time of 4.43.03; Aisling Bourke took bronze in the girls 400F/C 13/14 group with a 5.12.40

In the girls 15/16 age group 800m F/C Laura English again took gold in a time of 10.17.40 to pip Laura Keaveny who took silver in time of 10.17.91 while Sarah Caulfield took gold in the intermediate in 10.29.21.

The 200 F/C saw Colm Garrick continue his good form following on from the Aer Lingus open to take on the longer distances his time of 2.13.00 was enough to take gold in the 15/16 age group. Fergus Sweeney (2.25.40) and James Caulfield (2.38.72) took bronze in the 13/14 and 11/12 age groups. In the girls 200 F/C 11/12 age group young Annie McCormack showed her prowess with a personal best of 2.36.97 to take silver.

In the girls 200 F/C Fionnuala Quinn (2.37.06) and Emma Hynes (2.39.50) were pleased to make the qualifying times for the Division 2, others to swim this event were Ciara McGowan, Aisling Bourke, Natalie Bourke, Sarah Wiseman, Sarah Caulfield, Stephanie Ford, Katie Tuohy, Meabh Garrick and Elaine Joyce.

Castlebar was also represented in the boys 200 F/C by John Whyte, Jimmy Wiseman, Brian Moran, Patrick Wiseman, Anthony English, Rory Grier-Gavin, Nicholas Quinn and Rory Tuohy.

Congratulations to the swimmers for the many star performances and thank you to Sebastian, Marian, Jackie and Joe for the good coaching.