Future Challenger Series - Round 1- Meet 1 - Region 1 - 10/10/2021

The first gala of the year was held at the all new Craigavon Swimming Pool and a small group of Juniors made their presence felt as we were finally able to compete against other clubs from the region.  Unfortunately, with COVID restrictions still in place teams were split into a North/South areas and Lisburn found themselves in the first meet with an early kick off on a Sunday! You just can’t beat it.

First up was the Mixed 10-12 year old Medley Team Relay - the criteria for relays at this meet required a mixture of boys and girls with an age spread from 10-12 years and representing Lisburn was Danil Flederis, Ross Gray, Erin Fitzpatrick and Amelia Stone with a 6th place finish Lisburn had points on the board and were underway.

Matthew Bland was first up on the individual swims and had a superb showing in the 100IM clocking a 2.01.75 finishing 8th overall and scoring points towards the overall team total.  

Next up was the 12 year old boys in the 200FC, one of the toughest events on the books it was over to Noah McCaw, Isaac Delaney and Danil Flederis and the boys all competed very well with Noah and Isaac coming in 10th and 12th respectively.  In the Girls event Zara Hopkins was the standout performer for Lisburn with a superb 3rd place finish blitzing her previous best time posting a 2.46.15. Sara was ably supported by team mates Sara Paternostro. (2.53.10 PB) Erin Fitzpatrick with a brilliant 2.42.71 (PB), Isobella Kiliokaitis (2.53.97 - PB) Agnes Jacquemin (3.03.98 - PB) and Holly Houston (3.10.56 - PB) congratulations to the girls on some super swimming - their coaches clearly have them going very well even at this early stage in the season.

Scoring more points for Lisburn City was Oliver Sinton in the boys 11 year old 100FC, clocking a 1.47.71 Oliver came home in 15th and stood up well to the challenge of competing outside of intra club galas for the first time.  Ross Gray, Jamie Shawe were the other swimmers for Lisburn, Ross smashing his previous best by 10 seconds and Jamie, not to be outdone, lowering his lifetime best by 12 seconds - well done boys!  In the girls event Amelia Stone lead the way for Lisburn with a 5th place finish in a time of 1.18.93, while teammate Tilly Bracken got Lisburn more points on the board with a time of 1.43.19, Annabelle McCaw showed some great skills with a first time swim in this event and setting a time of 1.46.35 and Lara Stewart smashing her previous life time best by 10 seconds setting a time of 1.36.43  More great swimming.

Next up was the 10 year old boys 50FC and having a great meet was young Matthew Bland who pulled another super swim out of the bag with a speedy 46.65 - well done Matthew!  

In the boys 11-12 100BRS 11 year old Ross Gray was in his element and despite being up against a lot of older kids produced a 9 second PB to finish 15th overall but 6th placed 11 year old - great job Ross!  Luke Stevens and Isaac Delaney were the other Lisburn swimmers in this event and Luke just narrowly missed getting under 2 minutes for the first time with an impressive 2.01.84, but at 11 years old Luke has another year in this age group and the future is bright.  In the 11 year old girls event Amelia Stone finished 3rd overall with a great swim coming home in 1.40.89 while Tilly Bracken, competing in this event for the first time put a 2.12.70 on the board and will be proud of a great effort.  Lara Stewart and Annabelle McCaw duked it out with Lara coming home just ahead of her team mate in a time of 2.02.03 just eclipsing Annabelle’s 2.03.71 - both will surly be looking to break that 2 minute barrier next time out.  In the 12 year old age group Sara Paternostro improved her entry time by 2.5 seconds coming in 6th overall. Sara was supported by Erin F, Agnes J, Isobelle K and Holly H, all of whom absolutely smashed their lifetime bests showing real strength in depth for Lisburn in this event  However, the star of the show here was Zara Hopkins who came in second over all smashing her previous PB by 9 seconds clocking a very speedy 1.33.07 - Well done to all the girls. 

So, a great showing from the team; 

Matthew B, Tilly B, Isaac D, Erin F, Daniel F, Ross G, Zara H, Holly H, Agnes J, Isabella K, Annabelle McC, Noah McC, Sara P, Jamie S, Oliver S, Luke S, Lara S and Amelia S.

Special thanks to Coaches Rachel Halliday and Brendan Stone and also to our COVID Officer Mr Gray and all those who volunteered for duties.

Well done everyone and with a bigger team planned for the next meet and AquaSprint galas back on the calendar parents will have to cancel their weekends and its time to get back to the pool!

Stan Sheppard

Head Coach

Lisburn City Swimming Club