Medal haul for Lisburn swimmers

A TEAM of 17 swimmers from Lisburn City Swimming Club travelled to Limerick in early July to compete at Irish Age Group Division 1 Long Course Swimming Championships in the National Pool, University Arena.

The competition began with the Boys 400 freestyle with 8 swimmers entered, Philip Cox, Andrew and James Edgar, Alex Harte, Chris Loan, Alex Haskins, Keelan Logan and Nathan Jones, many boys achieved personal bests, with James Edgar being placed 5th and Alex Haskins 6th in their age group.

The Girls 800 Freestyle produced best times for Zoe Smyth, Fiona Cash and Rachel Bethel with Rachel taking second place in her age group and the silver medal.

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In the Boys 200 Fly best times were achieved by Keelan Logan and brothers James and Andrew Edgar with all boys making their age group finals. Keelan took the first gold medal for Lisburn by becoming Irish Age Group Champion in a time of 2:34:35, with James Edgar taking third place and the bronze medal.

Girls 200 Fly had Fiona Cash and Victoria Hunter making their finals. Victoria took almost 6 seconds off her heat time to place 5th in her age group. At aged 11 Victoria was one of the youngest members of the team.

Boys 100 Backstroke saw both Alex’s in action, Harte and Haskins. Alex Harte narrowly missed out on a final place with Alex Haskins making his final, finishing 4th in a personal best time of 1:12:89.

Girls 100 Backstroke saw Zoe Smyth, Amy Seawright and Rachel Bethel in action with Amy taking 3 seconds of her personal best and Rachel qualifying for her final which she swam in 1:13:48 to take silver.

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In the boys 200 Individual Medlay Andrew Edgar and Alex Harte took part in their age group heats with Keelan Logan and Alex Haskins progressing through their age group heats to evening finals. Friends since primary school both boys produced great 4 second personal bests with Keelan taking bronze in a time of 2:37:74 and Alex becoming Irish Age Group Champion in a time of 2:34:72.

Victoria Hunter, Amy Seawright, Fiona Cash and Alexandra Hunter all swam in the girls 200 Individual Medlay heats.

Day 2 got underway with the Girls 400 Freestyle. Nicole Pollock was first out and swam a 7 second personal best. Closely followed by Amy Seawright, Zoe Smyth, Fiona Cash, Namona Teggert, Alexandra Hunter and Hannah Watson, Hannah producing a gutsy 5:15:55 in her first competitive swim since surgery. Rachel Bethel continued in her winning ways again taking silver in her age group.

Boys 400 Individual Medley saw the youngest boy Philip Cox take to the water. At age 11 Philip produced a 25 second personal best time in this extremely challenging event. Chris Loan qualified for Division 1 following his high achievements at Division 2 two weeks previous. Chris claimed 2nd place overall at Division 2 and travelled to Limerick to compete in the 50 meter pool for only the second time. Chris’s 33 second personal best time in the gruelling 400IM was exceptional. James and Andrew Edgar again entered in their own age groups produced best times. Keelan Logan and Alex Haskins swam well in their age groups with Alex taking the silver medal and Keelan the bronze.

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The girls 100 Fly saw Victoria Hunter again make an age group final (5th) along with Fiona Cash, with Alexandra Hunter narrowly missing out. Rachel Bethel swam a superb final to take gold and the title Irish Age Group Champion.

Boys 100 Fly had Keelan Logan, Lisburn Butterfly specialist, participating and taking the silver medal.

Namona Teggert, competing for the last time for Lisburn City before emigrating, swam the 200 Breast on Day 2. Philip, Chris, James, Andres and Alex Harte represented the boys in this event. Namona progressed to her final but a top 3 place was not to be.

The girls 100 Free had many of the girls making personal best times, Victoria, Amy, Zoe and although Rachel Bethel didn’t set a new best time she did progress to the Final to claim another silver medal.

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In the Boys 100 freestyle Keelan Logan progressed to the final registering a time of 1:06:11.

Final Day 1500 Freestyle saw Philip Cox finish 5th, Andrew Edgar 4th, Keelan Logan 4th in their age groups, Nathan Jones swimming a best time by 38 seconds and James Edgar rounding off a great season by claiming silver in his age group with a time of 19:03:21.

Girls 400 IM saw Namona swim 7 seconds faster than ever before, with Victoria and Fiona also competing.

Boys 200 Backstroke had Philip Cox and Alex Harte competing in the age 11-12 and 3 boys competing in the aged 13 – Chris Loan, James Edgar and Alex Haskins. The 3 older boys progressed to their final with Chris Loan finishing 5th in his age group in his first Division 1 championships. Alex Haskins, swimming in his favourite event claimed his second gold in a time of 2:32:63.

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Namona Teggert made the final of the girls 100 Breast and finished 4th just 1 second outside the medals.

200 freestyle events finished the competition. Alex Harte and Andrew Edgar competing in age 11-12 and Alex Haskins and Keelan Logan competing in aged 13. Both Alex and Keelan made the final with Keelan finishing 6th

Lisburn finished the championships in style with Rachel Bethel competing in the 200 Freestyle final. In a tough competitive field Rachel held strong to take her second gold of the championships, winning by just 0.01 seconds.

The team were accompanied by Head Coach Richard Gheel, National Junior Coach Mark McGrann and Team Managers Karen Haskins and Liza Watson.