Aisling Cooney wins Women’s 100m back-stroke: 2011 Irish Long Course Championships
Aisling Cooney conquers the fastest qualification spot in the preliminary rounds of the Women’s 100m back-stroke in the morning session of 2011 Irish Long Course Championships at the National Aquatic Centre on April 28, 2011.
The championship has already been a successful event after the dominating performances of the men and women in the 50m breast-stroke and the 200m freestyle events. The competition will conclude on May 1, 2011 after the completion of swimming events in the
Men’s and Women’s category.
The 20-year-old Cooney cruised her way into the semi-finals as the fastest swimmer, clocking an astounding 1:03.07 minutes effort. Her wonderful timing placed her comfortably ahead of the ARDS’s Melanie Nocher and KILK’s Jane Roberts, who touched the wall
for second and third fastest spot in 1:05.25 and 1:06.36 minutes respectively.
Cooney, who led the race from beginning, completed the first lap in a time of 32.07 seconds ahead of Nocher and Roberts, who posted a time of 36.21 and 36.97 seconds respectively. Cooney then sprinted her way to the finishing wall in a fastest time of 31.00
seconds to post 1:03.07 minutes on the board. The 22-year-old Nocher had a comfortable lead of 1.11 seconds from Roberts and touched the wall for second fastest spot.
Roberts was followed by TEMP’s Grace Branagan and SWSC’s Emma Cassidy, who secured the fourth and fifth fastest spot, clocking a time of 1:06.78 and 1:06.80 minutes respectively. Katie Reid of LISB touched the wall for the sixth position with a timing of
1:07.01 minutes.
Chelsey Wilson of ENSK and Katrin Kychygina of Temp appeared as the seventh and eight fastest swimmers on the podium, touching the wall in a time of 1:07.31 and 1:08.50 minutes respectively.
Cooney’s time was 0.83 seconds slower than her own time of 1:02.24 minutes which accompanied her with the gold medal in May 3, 2008.
In addition, Cooney, who earned the crowd’s respect by smashing the fastest seat, has expressed that she will try to earn the gold medal in the final.
These swimmers will again compete with each other in the today’s semi-finals, where the top eight swimmers will qualify for the tomorrow’s final.
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