Brothers shine at Ulster Swimming Championships

This meet, which takes place over a three day period each December, is Ulster’s main event of the Swimming calendar. This event is open to all ages of swimmers who have achieved the qualifying times which are set by Swim Ulster with only two groups classified as Junior (under 18) and Open. All events are swum together and only a gold medal is presented to the fastest junior swimmer in each event.

Nicky’s main stroke is the back crawl, while Lee, who was also traditionally a back crawl specialist, now trains mainly for the butterfly events. In the 50m back crawl Nicky finished 1st Junior and 2nd in the Open in a time of 28.37 while Lee recorded a time of 28.72 to finish 5th overall. This event was so close that 0.35 of a second covered 2nd to 5th places.

In the 100m back crawl Lee made it one each in the brothers battle for bragging rights finishing 2nd overall in a time of 1.00.60 while Nicky was 3rd overall and 1st Junior in a time of 1.00.87. While Lee had not entered the 200m back crawl, Nicky stamped his authority on this distance to take 1st in both the Open and Junior categories in an amazing new personal best time of 2.12.23.

In the 200m individual medley Nicky recorded a time of 2.16.70 to finished 2nd Junior and 3rd overall, just edging out the visiting German swimmer, Andre Schafer, by 0.19 of a second. While Nicky’s time of 2.05.05 in the 200m freestyle was not as fast as he had wished for, it was still good enough to earn him 5th Junior and 8th overall in the rankings.

Lee finished 2nd in the 50m butterfly in a time of 28.72, 4th in the 100m fly (1.01.89) and 4th in the 200m fly (2.17.93).

In the relay events the brothers were joined by fellow Leander (Belfast based) swimmers Conner Donnelly and Christian Benison. They had one 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes in the three relay events.

The boys have less than two weeks to recuperate before the Irish Short Course Nationals, which are being held north of the border this year, in their old home pool at Lisburn Leisureplex from December 16 to 18.

The Irish Nationals sees the competition step up a level but the Galloway brothers will, no doubt, be aiming to give a good account of themselves against their all Ireland competitors.