Bethany Carson, Sycerika McMahon and Shauna Smith clinch gold: 2011 Irish Long Course Championships
Second session of the 2011 Irish Long Course Championships concluded on April 29, 2011 with the Women’s events at the National Aquatic Centre.
The championship is also a trial basis for the national swimmers to qualify for the Irish Swimming Team to compete at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai this July.
The session started with the dominating performance of Bethany Carson in the Women’s 100m freestyle semi-finals, where the 19-year-old Carson sustained her fastest qualification spot, clocking a time of 57.71 seconds. She was followed by LIMK’s Grainne Murphy
and Dairne Ryan, who overwhelmed the second and third fastest qualifiers of the semi-finals, Niamh Murphy and Shauna Smith. Murphy and Ryan posted a time of 58.77 and 58.81 seconds to achieve second and third fastest spot into the final, respectively.
Later, Sycerika McMahon presented a phenomenal swim in the 100m breast-stroke by clocking a time of 1:12.67 minutes for the fastest qualification into the final. She was followed by NRS’s Shani Stallard and ALS’s Catrina English, who touched the wall for
second and third fastest qualification in a time of 1:13.59 and 1:16.06 minutes, respectively.
Moments later, 16-year-old McMahon occupied her fourth gold medal of the championship. Recently, she grabbed the gold medals of 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and the 50m breast-stroke. She won the gold medal for the 400m Individual Medley (IM) in a time
of 4:51.56 minutes and was followed by NRS’s Shani Stallard and GAL’s Saoirse McGrath, who won silver and bronze medal in a time of 4:58.73 and 5:14.59 minutes, respectively.
Then, LIMK’s Shauna Smith appeared as the fastest swimmer in the 50m butterfly semi-final, posting a time of 28.23 seconds. WAT’s Shauna O’ Brien and ENSK’s Chelsey Wilson followed her into the finals, touching the wall in a time of 28.47 and 29.09 seconds, respectively.
Lorna Cummins of SESC and Niamh McDonnell qualified as the fourth and fifth fastest swimmer, clocking a time of 29.37 and 29.77 seconds respectively.
The last event of the session was 800m freestyle relay final, where the ESB’s team conquered the gold medal in a time of 8:50.84 minutes. They were followed by TEMP-LE and BAN’s team, who touched the wall for silver and bronze medal in a time of 9:09.41
and 9:20.31 minutes, respectively.
The finals of the above events will be conducted in the second session of third day of the championship, where the winners will be awarded awards and accolades.
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