O’Hara among many swimmers on form
THE Athlone ‘ A’ Gala took place recently with Coach Richard Evans and 17 County Sligo Swimming Club athletes making the journey for a great day of regional racing.
First up was the boys 400 IM with the two Anderson brothers, Ronan and Eoin, competing for Sligo in the 16 and over age category, with Ronan placing 2nd and Eoin 4th.
Next up was the girls 100 Butterfly and Sligo’s only competitor was Ella O’Donovan who had a busy day, also swimming the girls 100 backstroke and 100 Freestyle.
In the boys’ butterfly 14/ 15 Joshua Fortune received gold and Niall O’Donovan had a good PB.
The girls’ 100 backstroke was the next event with six Sligo swimmers competing.
Danielle Farrell came third in 12/ 13 age group also competing were Ella O’Donovan, Eabha Moyles and Ella Monaghan and swimmers Maria Lyons and Grace Keogh competed in the 15/ 16 year old age groups.
Sligo had seven boys competing in the 100 backstroke. Sean Keaney placed fourth in boys 15/ 16, also in that age group were Joshua Fortune, Anthony Maher and Niall O’Donovan.
Ryan Gillen competed in the 12/ 13 age group.
Ronan Anderson came first in 16 and over boys with Eoin Anderson and Owen Eglinton giving good performances.
Danielle Farrell had a great swim in the girls 400IM, gaining a silver medal, also competing in this event was Maria Lyons.
Breaststroke was the next event with the boys up first.
Anthony Maher, Joshua Fortune and Niall O’Donovan all competed well.
Ronan Anderson won gold in the 16 and over age group with bother Eoin in fourth.
A bronze in 12/ 13 age group for Danielle Farrell was a successful end to a good day for her.
The Sligo boys 16 and over relay team won gold, in another great performance all round.
The squad consisting of Ronan and Eoin Anderson, Joshua Fortune and Sean Keaney excited the crowd with a great swim.
Swim Ireland’s Irish Open Swimming Championships took place at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin earlier this month too,
The event saw around 400 swimmers from 72 clubs compete across four days.
The competition was for national titles in 36 individual and four relay events.
Head coach of Co Sligo Swim Club Eduardo Santos made the trip to Dublin with seven Sligo swimmers.
Sligo SC’s highest placed competitor was 17- year- old Eanna O’Hara.
Eanna had a couple of great swims but the highlight was his sixth place finish in the final of the 200 breaststroke in a fantastic time of 2: 28.30, a PB of over three seconds.
Eanna also made it into the final of the 100m breaststroke, where he finished in 10th place, gaining another PB on the day with a time of 1: 06.73 in the heats.
The 100m and 200m breaststroke finals were both won by Rio 2016 Olympian, Nicholas Quinn from Castlebar.
In the 50m breaststroke, Eanna swam a great time of 30.78 to finish in 15 position overall.
Sligo SC stalwart Ronan Anderson competed in seven events over the course of the four days.
His best result came in one of his favourite events, the 200m IM, where he finished a very impressive seventh place in the final in a fast time of 2: 15.27, a PB of 3.68 seconds.
Ronan also put in some great performances in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, 200m fly and 100m and 400m free events.
Peter Mooney competed in three events, the highlight being the 100m freestyle where he swam a time of 55.22.
The other Sligo competitors were Maeve Keaney, Carrie McDaid, Jade Murphy and David Woods who all performed well in their respective events.
This was a fantastic showing at both events from the young swimmers from Sligo who look forward to their next gala.