Farrell swims into the record books again!!!

Well done to Andrew Farrell who yet again this season swam in to the record books with a NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORD in the Mens 200FC at a meet in the UK on Saturday. After swimming inside the record at the Nationals in July the record needed to be delivered at a Masters competition. The previous mark of 2:01.43 had stood for 12 years and after a fantastic swim on Saturday Andrew WON his age-group and the event overall by a full 11 seconds in a new Irish Masters record of 2:01:15.

Andrew - from all of us a massive "well done" yet again.

PADRAIC GRAY - SEA Swimmer of the YEAR 2007

A massive TEAMTSC congratulations to both Padraic Gray (3rd from left) and our team of sea swimmers (above) who after a fantastic summer in the sea finished the season in style with some fantastic results in the Liffey Swim - with only a small team we went to the awards dinner and collected:

1. Padraic Gray - Sea Swimmer of the Year 2007
2. Gabby Byrne - Fastest Masters Swimmer in the Liffey 2007
3. Daire O'Driscoll - Fastest U-20 Swimmer in the Liffey 2007

The TEAM above of Ian Kelly, David Hobson, Padraic Gray, Michael Gray, Pat O'Driscoll, Daire O'Driscoll, Stephen Higgins and Gabby Byrne deserve a massive congrats from the club on flying the TEAMTSC flag for the men so well this season. Our girls were represented by Aoibheana Hobson and Niamh Bergin in the sea this summer also and a big congrats to them for their collective efforts also.

The Season Starts - Olympic Dreams part II, III & IV

Apologies for the lack of Blog activity in the first two weeks of Training. It has been noted from our blog readers in the USA that I have not been keeping up to date so my sincere apologies for that. Anyway - WELCOME back to the entire TEAMTSC membership who have joined us again this year for the next stage of the adventure that is our pursuit of the ultimate dream - the OLYMPICS - this season will end in an Olympiad in Beijing in the summer of 2008, but already I am looking to the possibility that London 2012, or perhaps wherever 2016 is, will see someone in this TEAM realise their ultimate goal.

The DREAM can take 10,000 Hours or 10 years to become a reality. EVERY sportsperson at the highest level in their chosen sport has practised that hard - Swimmers swim, that's what they do so your journey starts today and every day after that !! The "Pursuit of EXCELLENCE" is our goal in this season. Everyone knows that we work hard, I know that we have some very talented athletes in the water but in the overall search for our best effort we need people to push beyond that point and really LIVE the DREAM everyday. If you want to be your very, very best then EVERY day has to be pursued with a focus that you will do whatever you need to do to realise your best. "Practice makes Perfect" is what they say but that's not quite correct. "PERFECT Practice makes PERFECT" is what it really means. You have to practice PERFECTION and EXCELLENCE constantly so that it becomes what you do automatically. In training what does that mean?

1. Turn up on TIME - that's 10 mins before to get ready!!!
2. Bring your OLYMPIC ATTITUDE with you to training - DAILY !!!
3. LEARN to PERFECT your skills in EVERY stroke, EVERY length, EVERY 10m pushoff
4. Have FUN, ALL the time !!
5. Set standards for yourself, WIN every day against yourself, the clock, delivering TOUGH sets to the BEST of your ability: WANT TO!! = CAN DO!! = WILL DO!!

Welcome back to the NEW TEAM TSC - A BETTER, STRONGER, FASTER, MORE SKILLFUL, HAPPIER, MORE FLEXIBLE, TOUGHER & FITTER TEAM.
Lets ENJOY the journey one and ALL so Remember:

100% right is 100% right

99% right is 100% wrong

FARRELL smashing records at EUROPEAN MASTERS

Andy Farrell continues to lead the way for the TEAM with a RECORD BREAKING set of Swims at the European Masters Championships in Slovenia this week. Having trained solidly throughout August Andy has been in good form in training and with a few days rest, Andy travelled to Slovenia on Sunday last to get ready to compete in his first European event.

On Tuesday Andy had his first swim in the 800FC and swam an incredible 14Second PB and a NEW IRISH MASTERS RECORD by some 19 seconds. The time was 9:27.07 and was 5th in the overall event. Andy has broken this record a couple of times this year but this 19 second improvement on the record sets a strong standard for the event. Wednesday was the second day of competition and Andy swam a 2:06.17 which was fractionally outside his best time and his own current Irish Masters record of 2:05.99. Andy finished in 6th place in this event so for the second day in a row delivered a result well inside the top10 in Europe which was his goal. Day three of the meet was a day off for Andy so after the rest day Andy returned for the fourth day of competition looking to focus on his 400FC swim. Earlier in the session Andy stroked through his 100FC with a solid 58.9 swim and allowing him a 27th place result. Later in the session and swimming two in a lane Andy swam another NEW IRISH MASTERS record by 1.4 seconds with a time of 4:32.63, which was 0.38 outside his PB but good enough for 6th place and allowed Andrew notch up his third swim in the TOP 6 in Europe.

After the Meet and a fantastic season Andrew commented, "I'm delighted to have attended this European level competition, to be swimming for Ireland and to be the first Masters representative for TEAM TSC. I've had a great season and these top 6 finishes have been very satisfying". He also said he'd see us all in training on Wednesday next to plan his attempts at next year's records. I think the entire TEAM and Templeogue Swim Club are delighted with his results and know how well deserved they are with all his hard work in the pool this year.

Looking forward to next season.