Day four morning session: 2011 Irish Long Course National Championships - Women’s events
Morning session of 2011 Irish Long Course Championships concluded on May 1, with the preliminary rounds in the Women’s category. The championship witnessed dominating swims of Aisling Cooney and Sycerika McMahon in their events of 50m back-stroke and the
100m butterfly heats.
The session concluded with the preliminary rounds of the 50m back-stroke, 100m butterfly, 200m Individual Medley (IM) and the 50m freestyle in Women’s category.
The first event of the session was 50m back-stroke, where ESB-IRL’s Aisling Cooney appeared as the fastest swimmer to qualify for the semi-finals, touching the wall in a time of 30.19 seconds. Her time was only 0.75 seconds away from her own Irish benchmark
of 29.44 seconds set last year. She was followed by ENSK’s Chelsey Wilson and SWSC’s Emma Cassidy, who touched the wall for second and third fastest qualification with a timing of 31.25 and 31.48 seconds, respectively.
In the 100m butterfly, Sycerika McMahon of LEA qualified as the fastest swimmer into the semi-finals, clocking a time of 1:03.68 minutes. LIMK’s Shauna Smith and Grainne Murphy followed her into the finals, touching the wall for second and third in a time
of 1:04.33 and 1:05.14 minutes, respectively.
Next was the preliminary rounds of the 200m back-stroke, where the ARDS’s Melanie Nocher qualified as the fastest swimmer into the semi-finals, posting a time of 2:14.85 minutes. Her time was almost seven seconds ahead of her closest competitor, ENSK’s Chelsey
Wilson, who qualified as the second fastest swimmer in a time of 2:21.37 minutes. ESB-IRL’s Aisling Cooney followed them in the next rounds as the third fastest swimmer with her 2:21.66 minutes efforts.
Moments later, Sycerika McMahon once again dominated the 200m IM by touching the wall in a time of 2:23.00 minutes. Her time was comfortable ahead of LISB’s Bethany Carson and GAL’s Saoirse McGrath, who transpired as the second and third fastest qualifying
swimmers in a time of 2:25.86 and 2:29.44 minutes, respectively.
Women’s 50m freestyle heats were the final event of the session, where Melanie Nocher of ARDS proved her qualification for the fastest seat, clocking a time of 27.18 seconds. She was followed by TEMP-LE’s Niamh Murphy and LIMK’s Shauna Smith surfaced as
the second and third fastest swimmers into the semi-finals, clocking a time of 27.22 and 27.72 seconds, respectively.
The semi-finals and finals of the same events will be conducted in the evening session, where the swimmers clocking a time under FINA time qualification standard will confirm their spots in the Irish team to Shanghai for the 2011 World Championships.
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