Seamus Stacey conquers Men’s 200m freestyle heats: 2011 Irish Long Course Championships
NM DV’s Seamus Stacey wins 200m freestyle heats on day one of the 2011 Irish Long Course National Championships at the National Aquatic Centre on April 28, 2011.
The Men’s 200m freestyle heats were the third event of the morning session, where Stacey demonstrated a powerful swim of 1:56.58 minutes to earn the fastest qualification spot into the final. ARDS’s Curtis Coulter and DOL’s Sean Leahy followed him into the
finals as the second and third fastest swimmers, touching the wall in 1:56.83 and 1:56.84 minutes respectively.
At the start of the event, Coulter gained a slight lead with the help of his distant dive. He maintained his lead from Stacey in the first lap, but failed to do so in the second lap and was crossed by Stacey. Leahy also trailed them in first two laps of
the race clocking 58.34 seconds.
Their positions remained same in the third lap and Stacey managed to out-do Coulter in the final lap with a difference of 0.25 seconds. In the meantime, Coulter was lucky enough to touch the finishing wall 0.01 seconds faster than Leahy.
ENS-IRL’s Christopher Bryan and ALS’s Andrew Meegan qualified into the finals as the fourth and fifth fastest swimmers, posting a time of 1:57.43 and 1:58.13 minutes respectively. Bernard Cahill of ENS-IRL and Johnny P. Quinn of DOL, appeared as the sixth
and seventh fastest qualifying swimmers, clocking 1:58.59 and 1:59.81 minutes respectively. The eighth fastest spot was secured by Kevin Murray, who touched the wall in a time of 2:00.71 minutes ahead of the ATH’s Brendan Gibbons and ENS-IRL’s Dylan Barrett.
They posted a time of 2:01.00 and 2:01.31 minutes respectively.
Stacey was significantly slower than Irish Benchmark of 1:47.94 seconds, held by Ryan Harrison, who pocketed the gold medal in July 27, 2009. Stacey was extremely happy with his successful finish and expressed that he will try to reach the top of podium
for the gold medal.
The final of the same event will take place in the evening session, where the swimmers posting a time under FINA time qualification standard will be ensured their places for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai this July.
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