Irish Masters Swimming

The Masters Committee would like to wish each and everyone of the Masters community a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

On the topic of new years, we would like to to draw attention to the calendar https://irishmastersswimming.ie/upcoming-galas/ to help you with all that festive aquatic cold turkey.

Limerick is going to be as popular as every so book early to avoid disappointment : http://limerickmasters.com/?page_id=1881

Also keep an eye on irishmastersswimming.ie as more and more of the domestic galas are made available for entry online.

Also due in the coming weeks is the 2018 Top Ten rankings : https://irishmastersswimming.ie/topten/

Swim Ireland Masters committee are delighted to announce a number of upcoming events for Masters swimmers and coaches.  These are part of the Master Strategic Plan to support the development of Masters swimming and coaching in Ireland.

Masters Swim Skills Clinics:

Suitable for all level of competitive Masters swimmers, these clinics will be coached by regional development pathway coaches Mark Lapping and Sarah Fellner.

Places are limited so early booking is advised

Masters Coaching Conference:

We are delighted to welcome Glen Christensen, Swedish Olympic swimmer and coach to Ireland on 3^rd March 2019.

Topics and CPD points will be announced shortly

Early booking rate of €40 applies until 15^th January 2019

Masters events flyer

Hi everyone,

Hi Folks,

You can now enter the Mallow Gala for individual events online at the following link

Mallow Masters Gala 2018

For relay events, please enter directly with the Mallow organisers.

Here are the final results for the Celtic masters which ran this weekend.

The winning overseas team was Guildford City and the winning team outright was Kilkenny. Congratulations one and all.

celtic masters 2018 final results

The postal swim is now open for submissions all year round.

The details and form for the postal swim scheme are in this [download]

As part of a pilot for a new online entry portal for masters galas in Ireland, entries are now open for the upcoming Dublin Masters Sprint Gala.

The link to the process is https://irishmastersswimming.ie/dublin-masters-sprint-gala-2018-online-entry/

Entries are now closed and the psych sheets are available at https://irishmastersswimming.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/dublin-psych-sheets-2018.pdf

The pool season will shortly be upon us and here is what is on the menu . .

Kilkenny begin proceedings in September, apply [ here ]

The annual Dublin masters gala returns for its 5th instalment on October 14th, the programme can be downloaded [ here ]

The Celtics short course Irish open is also set to return on November 10th / 11th with an extended programme. Details can be viewed [ here ]

enjoy . . .

The Irish contingency had their final outings in Slovenia this weekend with the open water 3km and 5km events taking place in Lake Bled over Saturday and Sunday.

24 swimmers competed in the 3km on Saturday with plenty of vocal Irish support on hand as the swimmers took to the lake over 23 waves throughout the day.

Aer Lingus Masters swimmer Dymphna Morris had a superb week in the pool where she focused her efforts on her best events; 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle, picking up gold in all.  Morris was also part of the 4x50m mixed freestyle relay team on Thursday to add another gold medal to her collection.  Having registered for both the 3km and 5km open water events it was clear Dymphna had her eyes on at least one more medal.  Deciding to swim only 3km and give it her all, the Aer Lingus swimmer swam a sublime 40:23.2 to pick up her final gold medal of the competition, a total of 5 golds for Dymphna Morris at this European Championships.

Plenty of the female swimmers showed their versatility for pool and open water swimming with Leinster Open Sea regular Charlotte Reid finishing a strong 8^th in the ever competitive 35-39 age group.  In the same age group Roisin O’Brien finished 20^th while Comans swimmers Marie Kean and Arlene Mc Guinness finished 21^st and 22^nd in their respective age groups.  Ann McGrath flew the flag for Dublin SC with a 25^th place finish in the 30-34 age group.  The Donegall Diamonds team who featured in last year’s World Masters Water Polo event focused on the open water this year with four swimmers in action while Templemore swimmer Emma Van Loock also took to the open water.

In the men’s 3km event Boyd Freeman of Aer Lingus Masters finished best of the Irish in 7^th place in the 55-59 age group after a busy schedule in the pool earlier in the week.  Next best was Dublin SC’s Ceall O’Dunlaing who finished 11^th in the 45-49 age group, with Mick Kelly of St. Vincent’s finishing 17^th in the same age group.  As with the pool session during the week there were plenty of Aer Lingus Masters swimmers in action; Peter Conway (32^nd), William Irwin (53^rd), Liam O’Gradiagh (66^th) and Liam Ryan (68^th).  Other swimmers in action in the men’s race were Templemore Masters swimmer Ciaran’Flaherty (33^rd), Ennis Masters’ Paschal Phelan (39^th), Eamon Dempsey (46^th) of Glenalbyn Masters and Kilkenny’s Duncan Russell (54^th).

The final event of the European Masters Championships was the 5km open water on Sunday morning.  Just two Irish swimmers took to Lake Bled for this event.  Brian Harris of Asgard SC travelled to compete in this one event, putting in a solid swim to finish 10^th in the 40-44 age group in 1 hour 1 minute.  Paschal Phelan of Ennis Masters showed true grit to compete in both the 3km and 5km events this weekend and had the honours of final Irish swimmer at this competition to finish 29^th in the 50-54 age group in 1 hour 13 minutes.

Congratulations to all swimmers who competed across eight day of competition in Slovenia.  Irish swimmers are bringing home a total of 14 medals; 8 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze.

Friday 7^th September marked day 6 and the final day of racing in the pool in Kranj, Slovenia.  The events included 200m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke.

Marie Keane of Comans was first up this morning in one of the toughest events on the program – 200m butterfly, finishing 5^th in the 60-64 age group.  In the men’s heats Peter Conway was the top Irish finisher in 6^th while Aer Lingus Masters colleague Declan O’Sullivan placed 12^th in the 55-59 age group.  Gabor Szabo of Guinness took 13^thplace in the 40-44 age group.

Starting at the opposite end of the pool was the 50m backstroke.  Liz Cosgrave of Trojan SC was keen to add to her medal collection and did not disappoint with a first-place finish and Irish record time of 36.94.  Today’s medal brings Liz’s total for the meet to 4; 3 gold (clean sweep in backstroke events) and 1 silver, along with 4 Irish records.  In the men’s 50m backstroke Aer Lingus Masters’ swimmers Vivian Mongey and Boyd Freeman competed in the 55-59 age group finishing 7^th and 11^th respectively.  Trojan’s Andrew Desmond placed 12^th in the 50-54 age group in a time of 36.67.

The final event of the meet was the 100m breaststroke and Marie Keane finally got her hands on a well-deserved bronze medal in a superb time of 1:38.56 which is also a new Irish record.  This was quickly followed by Charlotte Reid who picked up a silver medal in a time of 1:20.99, just 1 second outside her own Irish record.  The honour of final dip in the pool went to the oldest team member on the trip; Gerry Flynn of Cathal Brugha putting in a solid swim to finish 13^th in the 70-74 age group in a time of 2:05.96.

The swimming action now moves to Lake Bled with the open water 3km taking place tomorrow Saturday 8^th and 5km on Sunday 9^thSeptember.  Twenty-five swimmers will feature in tomorrow’s event with another four brave and hardy souls hitting the water on Sunday in the 5km event.