WOW, WOW, WOW is all I can say to the TEAM TSC Team members who did themselves so proud last weekend at the
Leinster Division 1 Age Group Championships.
On an ongoing basis our coaches try to focus athletes on
"doing the right things" and last weekend saw just how far the younger swimmers on the TEAM have developed in their racing skills this year so far.
Warmups were delivered in a very focused yet relaxed way with each athlete knowing what they needed to do and also how to do it. Swimdowns were delivered, in the main, by every team member and within minutes of finishing races, the way it should be to ensure a better recovery. Well done too to those who remembered your water bottles throughout your swim down, that's why you were able to recover and swim the next event so well.
It was great to see our athletes have the
confidence,
mental strength and the
endurance to stand up and race 3 to 4 events per session, which when translated to heats, finals and relays some of our athletes swam over 20 Times in the three days. If you remember at the recent World Championships
Ryan Lochte, multiple world Record holder, swam 23 times in 5 days, whilst training through the meet, and he stood tall on the last day and raced a NEW world record. At the recent Santa Clara Invitational Meet in Florida,
Michael Phelps raced 8 events over three days so heats and finals heading for 20 races. I hope you recognise and understand that this is what
YOU did last weekend.
YOU were doing as
Olympians do, in this
OLYMPIC YEAR. I knew your
ATTITUDE would mirror that of people who want to perform at the highest level and as expected you delivered that. Well done
TEAM TSC - YOU were fantastic!!! last weekend,
FASTER in finals,
TOUGHER and
STRONGER as the weekend went on,
FOCUSED on your
SKILLS and your
PACING and 100% committed to preparing well and delivering your very best. Having delivered this challenge,
YOU just need to be
BETTER and make sure
YOU do
IT EVERY TIME YOU RACE.
When it's TIME to RACE, TEAM TSC has the PACE !!!!With
146 Top 8 finishes and
Over 80 Top 3 results from the entire team. The number of PB's was the biggest number we have had in the history of the club at a single meet.
Some of the more noteable efforts were
Niamh Murphy demolishing her own PB and a qualification standard for the 2012 TEAM in the process with a superb 1:00.94 100FC Swim, just reward for her dedication to training since the season start. Following suit with a tough schedule was
Brian Feighan who completed an impressive 23 Swims over the course of the meet with
Dayna Clegg finishing at 22 for the event also, Dayna's attention to her swim downs and ongoing hydration throughout the meet saw her deliver 20 swims of the 22 she did in the top 2 position in both heats and finals.
Eva Barrett swam to an outstanding gold medal swim in the Girls U12 100BC with a monstrous PB and
Katrin Kychygina, Ciara Feighan & Michelle Larkin also delivering their best results with making their first AG final.
Jonah Clegg delivered two Gold Medal swims and
Salim Sebaoui in only his second competition this year also delivered best in Age results.
All in all our U12 & U13 girls showed their collective strength with 6 out of 8 places in some of the U12 events going to TSC girls. Special mention in the U12's to
Alison O'Driscoll and
Niamh Bryson who between them finished 1 & 2 in 8 of the events in which they raced. Niamh's determination in the 400FC produced a huge PB for her and a gold medal and showed just how far her FC has improved this year as ALL of her FC events showed massive PB's. Her more favoured Breastroke results stood out too as she collected big results in those swims. Alison notched up best in age results across her events and swam to take
top of the podium on no more than
7 occasions. Again Alison's attention to skills and increased training over this season has allowed her convert to racing multiple events and delivering consistently. We also saw
Eva Martin collect two bronze medals, 5 top 5 finishes and consistent PB's also.
Martha O'Donoghue produced Irish Age Group qualifying times as she won her first medal at the Leinster AG champs with a bronze in the 200IM, not to mention her 4th place finishes in the 400 & 800 and 6th places in the shorter FC events.
Ciara Feighan demolished each of her PB's and was rewarded with her first Leinster AG final in the 200FC but also finished 5th in the 800 and 6th in the 400 FC events.
Katrin Kychygina also produced the goods in her favoured Backcrawl events with a double silver performance in the 100 & 200 accompanied by some top 8 results in the FC events. Our Younger athletes
Saoirse Bryson (10),
Aoife Robinson (11) and
Anastacia Kychygina (10), picked up valuable experience and a large BIG box of PB swims in each of their events.
In the 13 Yr old girls
Naoise O'Driscoll &
Niamh O'Keeffe continued the trend with MASSIVE PB's in their events and some well paced and controlled swims in racing new LC events for them. Well done girls.
Michelle Larkin showed her form with an impressive 6th place in the 200 Breastroke, her first AG final and a suite of PB swims across her additional events. Niamh, Naoise & Michelle now get organised for the Irish Age Group Division 2 Championships in Limerick in the next two weeks. The girls performances at the Leinster AG's last weekend will ensure that they are very much ready to race to even better results in Limerick. Best of luck girls on your final few weeks of preparation.
Ciara Robinson saw how far she has improved this year with an impressive bronze medal in her now favoured!! 100BF event whilst collecting 4th in the 100FC, showing her endurance in the longer events with top 8 finishes and her versatility through collecting PB's and additional top 8 placings in the IM and Backcrawl events.
Some of our more experienced 13Yr old girls also showed that they too have continued to work hard with
AnnMarie Finn producing bronze medal swims in the 400FC, two additional top 4 and top 5 positions and ALL 8 of her results producing top 8 finishes.
Grace Branagan &
Dayna Clegg produced 21 and 22 swims respectively with individual heats, finals and relays and showed their tough competitive streak as they raced to strong results across all events they competed. Grace, chasing qualification for British Age groups produced some close to PB results in her more favoured 100 & 200 events and a really superb swim in the 200FC and the 400FC showing her that the work done this year is without question improving her endurance events. Improvements in pacing and control also saw Grace deliver consistently in her finals. Dayna's extensive work on developing her skills and considerable improvement in training volume this season paid off with allowing her deliver her most impressive results to date with consistent heat swim times within marginal %'s of her PB's and then subsequent improvement on those times in all but one of her finals. This is the way to RACE. Dayna proved that PB's can be achieved, even when racing a heavily packed programme, by ensuring you stay focused on your skills in the race, swim down afterwards and stay hydrated and fed for the duration of the competition.
Our older girls also saw some great action with
Deirdre Murray,
Lisa Meehan &
Gemma Houlihan ALL qualifying for finals in their respective favoured events.
Laura Martin, carrying an injury swam close to her best and to a 5th place finish in the 100BC but was a little outside her PB's and unfortunately having qualified for a final had to withdraw with the injury causing her more concern than was originally expected. Deirdre came back in the PM to race to a new PB in the 100FC and a 5th place result and was delighted with her efforts as it was the fastest swim she has had all season and was right back to her best time. Lisa made two finals in the 100BC & 200IM finishing 5th in the 200IM with a strong new PB. Gemma Houlihan also posted her best time this season in the 100BF to finish in 6th place at this year's meet. Well done girls who also raced the 4 x 100MTR on day one of the meet and finished in 4th place also.
Niamh Murphy rounded out our girls efforts with a swim in the 100FC that is inside the TEAM 2012 qualifying standard and allows her get to achieve a large part of her target for the year. She powered home to a time of 1:00.94 after a heat swim of 1:02.03, thus ensuring that she has never swum a 1:01.?? 100FC ever and now has a real opportunity to cntinue that progression for 2012 QT's. Learning at each and every meet, Niamh also delivered gold medal placing in the 100BS and a bronze in the 200IM on the same day. A real confidence boost was Niamh's PB swim and a bronze medal in the 400FC which will give her the belief she needs to know that she is fit enough as well as strong enough to race an equally impressive 200FC over the summer meets. Having worked extensively on improving her breastroke this season Niamh was happy to deliver a silver in her 200BS. finally Niamh raced a new event for her with a 5th place result in the 100BF, showing that it's good to try a new one once in a while. Having qualified fastest for the OPEN 50FC, Niamh finished her weekend of racing in the silver medal position on the pure sprint event but having delivered a large new PB in a time of 28.26.
After day one and with over 65 Top 8 results the team grew in confidence and continued to develop and our boys played a equally important role in getting us to the 146 top 8 finishes.
Jonah Clegg may have been our youngest male competitor but delivered superb performances all weekend as he raced himself in to two Leinster titles, a full year out of his age as an 11yr old racing Under 12. Jonah's Gold medal swims were in 200BS and 100BC and with excellent efforts too in the 200IM, 100BS and 400FC with bronze medals in each of these events. Just to complete his collection Jonah also finished 2nd in the 200BC. Many of Jonah's swims qualify him for Division 1 Irish Age Groups. Well done Jonah.
Cathal Dunne and
Tiarnan Murphy also kept our boys in the hunt for results with superb PB swims from both of them to finish in top top 15 and top 12 positions in their best events. Our slightly older boys had really stepped up to the mark at this meet with
John Martin (U14) racing to his first sub 60 second 100FC and a bronze medal in the same event. John swam to
TOP 5 in
EVERY event he swam in but capped off his efforts this weekend with a Bronze medal and a 100% set of PB swims.
Eoin Mongey (U15) too showed his form this year with a full set of PB swims in each and every event for him. Eoin swam to top 15 results in 4 of his 5 swims but was delighted that his impressive result in a relatively new event for him, the 400FC, will give him the confidence needed to continue to take another BIG step forward with his racing over the coming weeks. Well done Eoin.
Brian Feighan continued the charge for our 15 yr old boys with over 23 swims, the largest of the TEAM this weekend and continued to deliver PB after PB in many of his events. Brian's love of the 1500FC proved to be well worthwhile as he delivered his first Leinster Age Group title in that event in his age. Brian also delivered a bronze medal in the 200FC and a number of 4th place results in 200BF, 200BC and the 100 and 400FC. These impressive results in a heavy programme of competition will reinforce for Brian that all his efforts on both technique and skills as well as a good hard graft in training on some excellent sets is all paying off for him. Brian too showed he was prepared to take a few new events under his belt as he raced the 200BS for the first time in a long course event.
Skills are where it all counts and
Conor O'Keeffe (15) has worked harder than many this year on developing and improving his skills. He has also put up with me chirping in his ear daily about how important skills are!!! and that isn't easy!! lol. After a tough first few meets of the season Conor saw every last ounce of effort in training be returned to him in huge improvements across EVERY event he swam in. Well done Conor on staying dedicated to not only working hard but also for doing something daily on improving your skills. It's all paying off. Now you need to keep it going. Conor made a final in each event he entered capping it all with a Bronze medal in the 200BC, but also delivering 4th in the 100BC, 5th in the 100FC and 6th in 200BS.
In the under 16 age group
Daire O'Driscoll &
Dylan Farrell were joined by
Salim Sebaoui as they set about tackling their age Group. Two days before his Junior Cert starts,
(hint!! hint!! to ALL!!!! that it is possible to have yourself organised to train, race and study - not to mention go to the odd concert aswell, but only allowed if they're good bands!!! lol), Daire got on with the job by delivering strong results in his 1500FC event, winning it again for the second time. Coupled with his wins and PB's in the 100FC, 200FC, 400FC and 200BF and a bronze in the 100BF, I thnk Daire will find the Junior cert an easy enough option. Well done
Daire on the swims and staying in training and managing exams etc. but do something about the music man !!!!
Dylan Farrell continued his return to form this year as he delivered Silver medals in the 200FC, 400FC and 100BS and also 3rd in the 100BC and 4th in the 100BC and 200IM. Great news Dylan to see you back on form and we'll keep putting the finishing touches to your strokes in training to help you continue this improvement over the next few months.
Salim Sebaoui, who has been really getting after training since he joined the club just before Christmas, became a Leinster Age Group champion in the 200IM and 100BC whilst delivering huge PB improvements in his other events to finish 4th in the 200FC and 6th in the 50BS. Demonstrating that we have had a super meet across a multitude of ages was
Finbar McTiernan who also swam strong results with his performances for two silver medals in his favoured Backcrawl sprint events. Finbar has been nursing a slight injury and is steadily improving but the performances form last weekend will give him added focus and encourage the continued improvement for end of year performance at Nationals in July.
Overall, this competition has shown the entire TEAM that we are improving as a TEAM and that your hard work and dedication to developing your skills is paying off. WELL done one and All!!
