The opening day of the new look 2023 Irish Age Group Championships got underway in the University of Limerick Sports Arena today with just under 700 swimmers from 100 clubs competing over four days of competition.
The first medals of the week were up for grabs this morning in the Boys and Girls 200m Freestyle Relay. The Girls 12 yrs were first to the blocks with Trojan’s Lucy Mowlds, Eva Butler, Kamila Stachera, and Sian McCrohan (2:07.24) taking the gold back to Dublin, silver went to Orlagh Todd, Ella Kanis-Dickson, Molly McGleenan, and Anna Burkamp of Portadown (2:11.26), bronze went to Dolphin’s Claire Bugler, Jessica Merrigan, Isabella Malley, and Laura Garcia Villa (2:15.28).
Glenalbyn’s Rodriguez Mendoza, Marco Frasarin, Kevin Fenyvesi and Pietro Frasarin finished in a combined time of 2:11.61 to take gold in the Boys 12 yrs, with silver going to Blackrock (Sonny Barrett, Eamon Bradley, Ruairi O’Sullivan, William Egar) in a time of 2:11.82.
The Girls 13-14 yrs were up next with the quartet consisting of Rene Malley, Abaigael Logan, Orna Higgins, and Lexi Dunne (4:16.24) coming home first to take the gold, silver went to Georgia May Agnew, Orlaith Dowling, Gracie Mulloy, and Lily Ramke of Trojan in a time of 4:17.51, with Banbridge (4:20.48) taking the third and final spot on the podium.
There was another relay medal for Trojan shortly afterwards, this time in the Boys 13-14 yrs with a combined time of 3:59.73 from Dawid Stachera, Beau McCabe, Danylo Prokhorov, and Baltazar Allende enough to take top spot. Lurgan’s Pierre Foster, Harry McGlashan, Cian Doyle, and Oscar Black clocked a combined 4:06.30 to take silver, while Banbridge (Shea Mathers, Shea Carragher, Aodhan Barry, John Raphael Rada) finished in 4:06.58 to take bronze.
The 1500 Freestyle took place this afternoon with the 13 yrs gold going to Artem Kovalenko (NAC) with a time of 18:44.20, Harry McGlashan (Lurgan) finished second in 19:09.12 and in third place was Garvan Gillard (20:18.47) of Blackrock. The 14 yrs winner was Tadgh O’Brien (17:49.06) of Dolphin, Dylan Brady (Drogheda) was home in second with a time of 17:59.97, while bronze went to John Raphael Rada (18:03.44) of Banbridge.
The Girls 100m Breaststroke was the first final of the evening, with the 12 yrs up to the blocks first on front of a packed UL Sports Arena. It was Ella Kanis-Dickson of Portadown who took the first gold of the night with a time of 1:29.87, Mid Ulster duo Kayley Niblock Preston (1:31.06) and Sophie Walls (1:32.26) finished in second and third place respectively. There was a tight contest in the 13 yrs with the gold going to Grace Eyre of Bangor (1:18.89), touching closely behind was Eimear O’Neill (Cookstown) in 1:23.34 and taking bronze was Neysa Connolly (Galway) with a time of 1:25.65.
The last age group of the Girls 100 Breaststroke was the 14 yrs with another tightly contested race, the Banbridge duo of Georgina Walker and Samantha Burns-Atkin were separated by a mere 0.1 milliseconds, with Walker touching first (1:18.37) to take gold and silver going to Burns-Atkin (1:18.38), both were closely followed by Dolphin’s Lexi Dunne (1:18.70) who picked up bronze.
With a change of events, we moved onto the Boys 400m IM with the 13 yrs first to the blocks, Shea Mathers (Banbridge) came home first in 5:17.25, Harry McGlashan (Lurgan) clocked 5:37.26 to take the silver while the third and final spot on the podium went to Garvan Gillard (5:42.66) of Blackrock, visitor Finley Guest (5:34.94) took a commemorative bronze back to Hillingdon Swimming Club. The 14yrs gold went to Tadgh O’Brien in a time of 5:04.94, while in second place was Scott Duda (5:05.24) and in third place was Sean Carrig (Limerick) with a time of 5:12.27.
Up next was the Girls 200 Freestyle, Emma Kwan (Swim Belfast) was home first in the 12 yrs race to take gold in 2:28.13, Sian McCrohan (Trojan) clocked 2:30.83 to take home silver, while the bronze was claimed by Rebecca Lavery (2:31.62) of Bangor. The 13 yrs took to the blocks next as the Limerick crowd continued to ensure there was an electric atmosphere, Julia Dziedzic (Aer Lingus) came home first with 2:18.33, closely behind was Georgia May Agney in 2:18.53, with Victoria Lynch clocked 2:20.90 in third place. The final A Final of the event was the 14 yrs with just .50 milliseconds separating Dolphin’s Lexi Dunne (2:13.05) and Limerick’s Lucy O’Brien (2:13.55) in first and second, while third place went to Emily Hughes (Larne), finished closely behind in 2:14.39.
The Boys 200 Freestyle was next on the schedule with the 12 yrs up first, Anton Nieuwoudt of Limerick went quickest with 2:22.17 to take gold, with AJ Rodriguez Mendoza (2:28.34) of taking silver and bronze going to Fraser Prue (2:31.11) of Bangor. Baltazar Allende (Trojan) was the first home in the 13 yrs Final with a time of 2:05.81, Artem Kovalenko (NAC) finished in second place in 2:10.40, with Riley Brown (2:11.12) of Ballymena in third place. Phelim Hanley (Blackrock) took the 14 yrs gold medal with a time of 2:05.12, Dawid Stachera (Trojan) was next to touch the wall in 2:07.88, while Sunday Wells Thomas Bugler was the next home in 2:07.92.
As Day One of competition drew to a close, the packed crowd were still in high spirits as we moved onto the Girls 200 Backstroke event. Swim Belfast’s Emma Kwan (2:45.98) touched the wall first to win the gold in the 12 yrs, Trojan’s Sian McCrohan (2:48.77) finished in second place to take silver, while third place went to Mila Pickett (2:49.61) of Ards. Eavan Ramsay (Trojan) was home quickest in a time of 2:33.18 to take the gold medal, her teammate Georgia May Agnew (2:37.64) was next to touch, with Sylvie Marley (Templeogue) finished in 2:38.38 to take the bronze medal. Caoilinn O’Connor of Sunday Wells clocked 2:30.92 to take the gold in the 14 yrs, while Leah Jacobs (Lurgan) touched the wall in 2:30.93 to finish second place, Sarah Keane (Portmarnock) finished third to take bronze in 2:33.12. Dixie Dot Turner-Moore of Lisburn took a commemorative gold finished in a time of 2:30.37.
The last event of the evening was the Boys 100 Breaststroke with the 12 yrs final first to the blocks, Marco Frasarin (Glenalbyn) was first home in 1:30.11 with Galway’s Simon Geraghty just .41 milliseconds behind to finish second, Caolan Doran (Limavady) took the bronze home with 1:30.71. Ballymena’s Riley Brown claimed the 13 yrs gold in a time of 1:15.42, while Lurgan’s Cian Doyle (1:18.33) finished second, the last remaining spot on the podium went to Ross Gray of Lisburn (1:18.96). The last medals on the line were in the 14 yrs with Emilian Petrea (Trojan) taking gold in a time of 1:12.55, the silver went to Daire Finlayson of Glenalbyn (1:14.10) while third went to Beau McCabe (1:14.26) of Trojan.
The action continues tomorrow with the morning session starting at 8:45am.
