Cunningham stars for Kilkenny at Age Group Championships

Kilkenny Swimming Club members enjoyed a good gala in the University of Limerick for the first ever Irish Age Group Championships.

At this event swimmers up to age 14 are eligible to compete and it went down a storm.

The young Kilkenny swimmers showed their prowess for freestyle across the four days.

In particular long distance freestyle where Abby Cunningham put in two excellent swims to win bronze in the 800m and silver in the 1500m.

Conor Carroll swam very well to place fifth in the 1500m and sixth in 800m.

In the middle distance freestyle events which are the 200m and 400 metres, Megan Murphy, Kate Maherand Conor Carroll reached B finals over 200m while in the 400m A final Abby won bronze and Kate set a personal best (PB) as she finished 10th.

In the freestyle sprints Kate Maher reached the 50m A final finishing sixth and Darragh O’Brien put in his best swim over the distance to set a new PB by over a second.

In the 100m Klava Hayes earned an improvement certificate for a new PB.

In backstroke Megan Murphy showed her prowess as she set new PBs and reached B finals in both 100 and 200m.

Jane O’Connor set PBs and reached the B finals of the 200 Individual Medley race while Klava Hayes also set a new PB.

In the breaststroke events Jane O’Connor reached the under-12 100m B final and 200m A final setting excellent PBs in doing so.

Abby Cunningham reached the 100m under-14 A final.

In the energy sapping 200m butterfly, Conor Carroll earned an improvement certificate as he swam a big PB.

Attention now turns to the climax of the domestic swimming season with the Irish Summer National Youth and Senior Championships in Dublin.