National and Munster records for Crystal Swimmers

The Irish Short Course Nationals was one of the few Sporting events to go ahead despite the deluge that covered the country for the past week. The Gala took place at The National Aquatics centre Dublin from the 19^th to the 22nd Nov.

Crystal had 12 swimmers who had achieved the required Qualifying Times .The swimmers were Niamh Cleary, Bernadette Power, Grace Doyle, Shauna O’Brien, Colm Dowling, Ken Breathnach, David O’Suillivan, Diarmaid Brennan, Joe Murphy, Tommy Bergin, Louise Kent, and Clare Larkin.

Waterford’s Crystals Colm Dowling got the Club off to the perfect start when in the 200m metre Backstroke Finals he took gold, where was far too strong for Niall Wynn of St. Paul’s with 10 seconds separating the pair at then finish. Colm time of 1.59.39 was just 1.17 seconds off Donal O’Neill’s national senior record.

Dowling continued his winning ways with a further backstroke victory in the 50m event (25.77) and silver in the 100m in a time of 54.95.

The Kilkenny native and WIT student was a well deserved recipient of the Kilkenny Smithwicks Sports Star Award 2009 earlier this month.

Shauna O’Brien set a blistering pace in the 50m fly where she beat former Olympian Aisling Cooney into 2^nd place to claim gold for crystal. The Kilmeaden teenager’s time of 28.08 is a new Irish Junior, and Munster Senior record. Shauna continued her fine form to win the 50m Free in a time of 26.75 and was 2^nd in the 100m free equalling the old Irish record time.

Shauna was also involved with Club mates Clare Larkin, Niamh Cleary, and Louise Kent when in the 400m freestyle the girls set a new Munster junior record with a time of 4:06.92.

The Junior Cup for the 100m meter freestyle went to Crystals Ken Breathnach who time of 51.48 was good for 4^th place in a very strong field .Ken best days are yet to come as he featured in a number of finals recording several PBs.

Ken was instrumental the 800m men’s senior freestyle relay where he helped   Clubmates  Colm, Joe and Tommy claim gold in a Munster record time of 7.40.85.

Joe Murphy by all accounts is making great progress at the Limerick High performance Centre where he is training this year, unfortunately Joe was only involved in one days swimming at this Gala .The Tramore man left his mark in the 200m medley where he hade a very impressive time of 2.06.82 which Was good for 2^nd place.

Tommy Bergin was unlucky with a 4^th and 5^th place in the 200m and 100m Fly. The 100m Fly also saw Crystals David O’Suillivan put in a strong performance claiming 7^th place in a time of 59.53.

The crystal pairing of Louise Kent and Niamh Cleary produced several Pbs over the course of this gala .Arguably their best performance was in the final of the 400m free B final were the girls were good for 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively.

Well Done Diarmaid

Everybody at the Swimming Club was delighted with the academic excellence of Diarmaid Brennan who achieved not 1 but 12 A s in higher level papers in the Junior Cert. Diarmaid along with his busy swimming schedule is also able to find time  for his other passion in life –Music.