Newry Democrat - Sports - Swimmers in top form

Sports

Swimmers in top form

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

THE Newry and Mourne Swimming club picked up a host of medals at Swim Ulster's Development gala at Ballymena's Seven Tower's Leisure Centre - and that despite a huge turn-out of 275 young swimmers from 22 clubs from all over the Province.
The results were fantastic - everyone picked up at least one personal best time, with most getting pbs in all their events. Fair play to the squad and also to main organisers Ann McConvey and Caroline Fitzpatrick.
Outright winners were Matthew Freeman, Cian McConvey, Sean McKevitt, Matthew Collins, Christopher Bagnall, Joseph McKevitt, Len McKevitt, Caoimhe Connell, Aine Fitzpatrick and Valerija Staselovich.
But a special mention must go to Christopher Bagnall who won at a distance in which few swimmers participate. The Armagh Road lad picked up gold and clocked a stunning 21.44 for 1500-metres, the longest Olympic distance. The 16-year old also picked up bronze in the 100-metres where he recorded 1.06.
Meanwhile Joseph and Len McKevitt each collected double gold medals, Joseph clocking 1.09.30 in the U14 100-freestyle and 34.15 in the U14 50-metres backcrawl, while Len recorded 1.21.37 in the U16 100-metres breaststroke and 1.01.25 in the U16 100-metres freestyle.
Matthew Collins was yet another Newry double gold winner and in the U12 boys category he scorched to victory in the 200-metres freestyle with a nippy 2.43.28. His second gold came in the 50-metres butterfly with a fast 37.84.
Sean McKevitt was also a gold medallist - in the U12 50-metres backcrawl (38.61) and he also won bronze in the U12 100-metres freestyle (1.14.79).
Aine Fitzpatrick was a gold and bronze medal winner. In the U12 girls 100-metre freestyle Aine recorded an excellent 1.14.10 and she then won bronze with a 1.42.37 in the 100-metres breaststroke.
Matthew Freeman was yet another gold medallist - in the U16 'Fly where he clocked a 1.14.50. Matthew also won double silver - in the 100-breaststroke (1.24.88) and the 100 free (1.02.44).
Valerija Staselovich won gold and silver. She was first in the U12 girls 100-metre 'Fly (1.32.38) and second in the 100-metres freestyle (1.16.74) while Caoimhe Connell picked up gold in the U10 50-metres backcrawl with a quick 43.53.
The last of the gold medal winners was Cian McConvey who was first to the wall in the U13 50-metre backcrawl with a fast 42.11.
But as well as they winners there were plenty of other superb performances with pbs and top three finishes right across the board.
Just some of the others who excelled were: Jack Boyle, Claire Carvill, Emmett Carvill, Olivia Bagnall, Isabella Collins, Cara Conlon, Shea Conlon, Timothy Conway, Aoife Fearon, Callum Gribben, Oscar Henshaw, Jack Hughes, Orlagh Jennings, Juliana Kelly, Cian Lyons, Erin Lyons, Claire McAteer, Fergal McConvey, Daisy McElherron, Patrick Murphy, Thomas Murphy, Shea Rafferty, Wiktoria Snopek and Alicya Zurawska.