O’Toole in inspirational form for Irish swim team
BRAY swimmer Gary O’Toole was shining bright in the pool in 1988 when he captained the Irish team at the annual Eight Nations International at Edinburgh this week 32 years ago.
‘Gary plays a captain’s part’ was the headline in that week’s Wicklow and Bray People and it described how O’Toole recorded ‘yet another inspiring performance’ at the helm of the Irish side who went on to claim their highest ever points total at the event.
‘Gary led the team to their highest ever points total to come in overall fourth position ahead of Wales, Israel, Belgium and Finland.
‘Although below his best in the 200m breaststroke final, Gary more than made up for this with three excellent performances in the team’s three relay events.
‘They finished fourth in the 4x4 100m medley relay with Gary recording a time of 1.04.8 seconds for the breaststroke leg.
‘In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay in which the team also came fourth, Gary had a time of 52.33 seconds which is the fastest time recorded this year by an Irish swimmer in freestyle in a 50-metre pool.
‘Both times would have earned Gary the silver medal in the individual events.
‘The final relay was the 4x200m freestyle which saw Gary coming from behind on the final leg to snatch the bronze medals for the Irish. Gary’s time here was 1.55.26 - another top-class performance.
‘All three senior events were new Irish records for the distance. Counting his relay records, Gary now brings his total number of Irish records to over 20 for this season alone,’ it read.