Irish Age Groups Division 2, University of Limerick

Since I have absolutely no intention of doing anything for the next few hours I might as well write about the gala at the weekend, which surprisingly enough wasn't actually that bad!

Ok so it's been a while since I have been able to perform well at galas... I've been doing pretty good in training, finishing every set and hitting nearly all of my 85% times and all that technical stuff, but it just doesn'e reflect itself at meets. I think it's probably a psycholigical thing as much as anything else, I mean, if I can do the work in trainig then surely I can do it in competetion. Well this weekend, it all finally paid off. By that I mean that I actually got good PBs and even got pleaced well...

All through the week I had been doing very little. Firstly because I didn't want to be too tired going into the meet and also because I kind of needed to recover after the alst weekend. It was just all easy short swims, the alst one was Thursday night in Knockanannig where it was 21degC! On Friday I was incrediblt bored so I got a spin up to Limerick so I could support the people who were swimming on that day.

Saturday morning I was entered for the 100m Butterfly, don't ask why I entered this, I think it was because you had to enter 200m Freestyle and 200m I.M. plus two other 100m events and I certainly didn't want to do Backstroke or Breaststroke! I swam well enough, I think I may have got a 1:12 or someting like that... It was a PB anyway and my previous time was a 1:16 so a reasonably good improvement there. I was just outside the finals so was a "reservist".

In the evening I had the 200m Freestyle, apparently this was going to be my event so my coach insisted that I should do a few at 85% before going to line up. This was to get me into the mindset of swimming fast. And you know what, it really worked.. I do infact swim better after doing some fast work before the race. I took nearly 3secs off my old time to get a 2:11.84 which put me in 3rd place.

The next morning was the really important one, 100m Freestyle. The three of us who train in the middle lane together were all in this event. I was going in on a 1:02.15, Rory on 1:01.97 (that was the only time he ever beat me and is always reminding me), and James was going in on something well below the minute. In the heats James got the fastest with 59.40 but unfortunately got a big DQ for breaking! I got 1:00.79 and Rory got 1:00.51 so he was still marginally ahead. It was going to be a great final, the seeded times were 1:00.49, 1:00.50, 1:00.51, 1:00.51, 1:00.79 ans so on.. I was going in 5th and Rory 3rd. Lining up on the blocks I had three goals, beat Rory No. 1, break the minute No. 2 and get in the medals No. 3...

It was a great race. I can't remember who the winner was but he won in 59.55. Myself and Dylan Ryan from Ennis were joint 2nd in 1:00.10, Rory was 4th in 1:00.50. So goals 1 and 3 acheived and almost No. 2. Now it's just a case of losing that extra few kilos I'm carrying for the Channel and that 10th of a second is history. It feels great to be so close to that minute which I have been chasing for so long!

My last event for this year was the 200m I.M., not exactly my favourite event but it is compulsory so there's no point complainig about it... I'm not interested in this event at all so I didn't even know my PB. I found out later that it was 2:38, I just lined up and did the best I could. I took 3secs off to get a 2:35 which put me in 4th place s I got a nice certificate. Not too bad for somebody who doesn't do I.M. though. I think it was my Backstroke which let me down. It used to be my #1 stroke, not anymore!

I really enjoyed the whole weekend and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed that it's over for another year. My friend Chris Mintern from Sunday's Well did brilliantly, winning the swimmer of the meet award. Fermoy did very well overall, I don't have the exact number of medals and certificates but there wer loads anyway. Karen Sheehan cleaned up winning practically everything she entered, and she entered everything! Last week she came 3rd in 100m Breaststroke in the Inter-Provincials in Dublin and next week she is going to the Division 1s. Karaen is only 11 years old. Stacey Hegarty is also going to the Division 1s next week. Good Luck Karen and Stacey! We will also be missing Danielle O'Flynn next year. Dan decided to leave this year so it was her last ever outing with the Club, Bye Dan...!

So that's it for the moment. This Saturday, I am swimming from Cork City Hall to the Ocean, should take about 6 or 7hrs. We are starting at 4am. That's all I know so far so will updae on that later...