Swimming- Kilkenny take fine haul in Leinster Championships

Kilkenny Swimming Club was well represented at the Leinster Long Course Championships in Dublin.

It was a very productive meet, with the Cats taking 24 medals.

Many swimmers made finals and many more set new personal bests and achieved national qualification times.

The thought of swimming almost a mile in one race might not be everyone’s cup of tea, however Kilkenny swimmers are showing their abilities for long distance racing.

Three swimmers, Paddy Cuddihy (age 15-16), Conor Carroll (13-14) and Abby Cunningham (13-14) claimed gold in the energy-sapping test of endurance that is the 1,500m freestyle.

Not only that, but Paddy and Abby doubled up in the distance events with gold in their respective 800m freestyle finals while Conor won silver over the same distance.

In the middle distance freestyle events Abby showed her versatility claiming gold at 400 at silver at 200, while Jane O’Connor claimed gold in the 200 free. In the 100 free Doug Duffy (15-16) got bronze.

Kilkenny swimmers showed great potential in the breaststroke with a selection of medals won; Jane O’Connor (under-12) silver and bronze, Abby Cunningham (13-14) two silvers and Brendan Pretorius (15-16) silver as well as finalists in the 17 and over category from Sean Morrow and Marcas Bowen.

In backstroke, Paddy Cuddihy (15-16) maintained the club’s recent strong tradition with medals across all three distances - 50m, 100m and 200m.

The club demonstrated their prowess over 200m with six Kilkenny swimmers, both boys and girls, reaching their respective finals.

In butterfly the club had a number of finalists and Matthew McAviney (17 and over) won bronze in the 200m final.

In the relay events, the boys won a great bronze medal in the 15 and over 4x100m medley relay.

Paddy Cuddihy set them off with backstroke, followed by Marcas Bowen on breaststroke with Matthew McAviney on fly and Doug Duffy on the freestyle anchor leg.

Swimmers to reach finals were Daran Yalnazov, Kate Maher, Molly Bollard, Sean Cooke, Nessa Godden, Sean Morrow, Doug Duffy, Dan Rohan, Seán Cooke, Erin Morrissey, Nyah Vaughan, Ethan Kenny, Marcus Trait, Dan Rohan, Shelby Newsome and Klava Hayes.

Head coach John Duffy was very happy with the performances across the three days in Dublin.

“It’s been a super few days of racing,” he said. “The team showed resilience to race hard for three days, and out of that came some outstanding individual swims. Well done to all.”

It is all go now for the summer nationals in July.

As part of the preparation a number of swimmers will make their way to Tuscany in Italy for a warm weather training camp.

The under-14s will travel to University Limerick in early July, buoyed by provincial success, before the older swimmers will once again follow the well-trodden road to the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown for five days of competition before a well deserved month off.