A TRULY OLYMPIC SUMMER for TEAM TSC - Part 3

Having set a standard in the two previous National Meets, Dayna Clegg & Grace Branagan headed to the British Age Group Championships in Sheffield while the rest of the Senior TEAM headed to the Nationals in the NAC.

Dayna had a heavily packed program competing in 6 events with Grace competing in 2. After some strong efforts in Heats Dayna finished 12th overall in the event for 12 year old girls. The points are awarded across ALL events swum and shows how her hard work this season has resulted in her having the flexibility to race multiple events in true Olympic fashion. From the distance 800FC, through the middle distance events at 400FC, which produced her best individual placing at 11th in the meet, Dayna showed strength of purpose and commitment in each and every swim, with PB's in the 200FC, 400FC and equal to PB in other swims to cap off this excelent year with a very strong set of results for her.

Grace was involved in her first meet at this standard and again delivered PB swims in both the 100FC (38th) and 100BC (24th) to round off her season with a further representation of her continued improvement this season.

Well done to both girls who represented themselves, the Club and their country with pride. Here's hoping that this experience will give both of the further desire to train harder and continue to work towards their goals in the future.

The Olympic Games were just about to start in Beijing, as the girls flew home. The Olympic Games is the culmination of the dreams of many athletes who work tirelessly and battle brave and train hard on a daily basis in for over an 8 or 10 year period to reach this standard.

As a TEAM, we are committed to supporting each athlete achieveing their highest potential. That's what's important to each and every TEAM member. Michael Phelps has achieved more in Beijing this year than EVER before, he has re-written the record books and it all started when little 6 yr old Michael went to the pool in Baltimore to watch his sister swim. It can be achieved, by someone in TEAM TSC. It IS possible to someone in this TEAM to be in LONDON in 2012. The Challenge and the journey starts on Sept 1st.

ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A TRULY OLYMPIC SUMMER for TEAM TSC - Part 2

AS our TEAM set the Standard in Limerick, The Americans finished their Olympic Trials as the Olympics draw closer, our TEAM headed to the Irish Age Group Championships in the NAC with confidence and anticipation as the hard work for the year would pay dividend for one and all.

We surprised the event with our "BIG HANDS" and one and all commented on how well we looked as a TEAM. The results for the competition were the best EVER in the Club's history.

Some 75% PB's saw the team deliver excellent racing and an extremely strong performance by the whole team. Alison O'Driscoll finished the meet with 7 Gold medals and 7 PB's (Sounds familiar does it !!!! ......). Dayna Clegg delivered 8 Second place finishes, also too to Niamh Bryson who delivered 7 Medals, incl. 1 Irish Age Group Title, Grace Branagan who also delivered 6 Medals & 2 Irish Age Group Titles. The commitment to training and ptting in the work this year has paid off for you and allows you the building blocks for the future.

The event too saw a huge result in some breakthrough swims for John Martin who delivered 2 Medals (silver and bronze) and to Katrin Kychygina who delivered a Silver place finish in her first Irish Age Group Championships. Have a look too at Anne-Marie Finn who yet again this year, showed just how to pace races to deliver the best result possible and to Graham Field, both Anne Marie & Graham delivered 5 Finals each and to Eva Martin and Ciara Feighan who also delivered final placings in tough events in their respective age Groups.

After a strong year and loads of PB’s, a big well done to Ciara Robinson who helped her team to two relay Gold medals and some strong swims herself, showing how all her hard work over the season has paid off. Well done too to Jonah Clegg who having competed in his first event had to withdraw due to injury.

Well done to one and all !!

A TRULY OLYMPIC SUMMER for TEAM TSC - Part 1

The Main Games were in Beijing but in late June the TEAM TSC Athletes who attended the Division 2 IRISH AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS were the first of our TEAM to deliver the first set of results in this outstanding sumer for Templeogue SC

The competition saw Tiarnan Murphy lead the first swim of the weekend with a massive PB in his 100BF to finish in 9th place. The second swim of the day saw the girls continue the onslaught on their PB's with Naoise O'Driscoll (3:10.68), Aoife Robinson (3:21.83) and Niamh Lyons (3:32.55) also demolish their existing PB's with well placed swims in the 200IM.

This was followed closely by a superb PB to produce a bronze Medal by Michelle Larkin (2:31.96), who continued the success with team mate Niamh O'Keeffe (2:37.38) also producing big PB's in their 200FC event. The younger girls returned to the pool with Naoise, Aoife & Niamh L competing again in the shorter 100FC in solid performances and good PB's with 1:16.18 from Naoise, and 1:21.47 and 1:21.54 for Aoife & Niamh L respectively.

Niamh O'Keeffe continued her weekend with a strong 100BF swim in a 1:34.42 swim whilst Tiarnan Murphy swam a well paced new PB also in the 200FC with a 2:31.55 effort. AS the weekend progressed Naoise O'Driscoll (1:26.59), Aoife Robinson (1:32.93) & Niamh Lyons (1:31.43) saw another set of PBs in the 100BC. Tiarnan finished the session with a 1:09.12 PB in his 100FC.

Michelle Larkin returned to the pool on the Sunday with a 5th place result in the 200IM in a 2:55.36 PB whilst Niamh O'Keeffe delivered another PB in a 3:06.72. Naoise continued her B run with a 1:45.08 swim in the 100BS whilst Aoife Robinson took a large PB in 1:45.88 as just reward for her hard work this year.

The last session of the weekend saw the most exciting swim with Michelle Larkin's 100FC leaving her Dad Padraig reduced to some unusual dance moves on poolside as she touched out a competitor who was faster in the heat to deliver her gold medal in an awesome 1:09.05, some 1.5 seconds faster than her heat swim. Well done Michelle and to Padraig "Michael Jackson" Larkin on the effort in that swim. Niamh O'Keeffe too can be proud of her improvements this year which were capped of by her highest place finish of the weekend and another excellent PB with a 1:11.98 swim in her 100FC.

Tiarnan Murphy continued his weekend with another PB swim in the 200IM with a 2:50.12 swim in his second highest place finish of the weekend. Our girls showed how strong their stroke skills have developed this year with Naoise (1:38.24), Aoife (1:45.12) and Niamh L (1:58.49) delivering 3 out of 3 in the 100BF. To complete the set of PB's Michelle Larking again delivered a great improvement from heats to finals with a 1:20.12 swim in the final of the 100BC for a bronze medal, whilst Niamh O'Keeffe delivered yet another PB in a 1:26.43 in her event also. Tiarnan's weekend came to a superb comclusion with a top 10 finish in his 100BC with a 1:16.99 swim, thus allowing us all to pat him on the back and congratulate him on how much he has improved this season.

The last session of the meet saw another great Heats to finals improvement by Michelle Larkin as she completed her 100BS in a 1:27.93 to finish just outside the top 3 in a race where all medallists went 1:27.?? so a really tight finish. Niamh O'Keeffe's 1:40.12 100BS saw her finish the season a happy lady as she recognised just how much of an improvement across a full range of events that she has made this season. Naoise O'Driscoll's final swim of the weekend saw her also deliver her final PB of the weekend in a 2:39.90 swim, whilst Aoife Robinson's 2:51.0 and Niamh Lyons 3:03.56 were also PB's.

This year's team was a small one wtih a number of other athletes unable to travel to the event. The team did themselves proud with PB after PB swim from each member across the strokes and the various events they competed in.

Our TEAM this season has shown real improvement in race skills and pacing and these athletes were the first of our National competitors to show just how far the TEAM have progressed this year.

Well done to Tiarnan, Michelle, Niamh, Naoise, Aoife & Niamh on a job well done. The Olympics in Beijing will see Phelps go for 8 Gold and 8 world records and these athletes delivered best ever PB swims on a par with the same level of focus and commitment to racing that Olympians do. Well done !!!!!