Sport

Aer Lingus help Irish fly through ASA Masters Championships

The successful Aer Lingus team who competed in the ASA Masters Championships in Manchester  
The successful Aer Lingus team who competed in the ASA Masters Championships in Manchester   The successful Aer Lingus team who competed in the ASA Masters Championships in Manchester  
By Freestyle with Gerry O'Neill

IRISH swimmers made a big impression at the ASA Masters Championships last weekend as they returned from Manchester with a huge haul of medals, and a few records as well, in both the individual and relay events.

Leading the way were the Aer Lingus club with multiple gold medal winners in Deirdre Morris, who managed a four-timer in the 50, 100, 200 metres breastroke and 50m butterfly in the 45-49 age group. Triple gold medallists included Vivian Mongey in the 50/100 and 200m backstroke and Tony Morris in the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle in the 60-64 age bracket.

Patricia Reilly also collected gold when she won the 50m breastroke, but it was the relays that provided most of the excitement and entertainment. Cara Mulcahy, who is well known in water polo circles as physio to the Ireland men's and womens' teams, was part of the relay team that picked up three medals.

Reilly said "We were absolutely delighted with the relay results, especially the 4x50 freestyle, when we broke the Irish record which had stood since 1996."

The other members of the squad, whose total age is over 160 years, were Charlotte Reid, Deirdre Morris and Sarah Farrelly. They also won the 4x50m and 4x100m medley relays.

Hibernian Masters were also to the fore, led by Kieran Kelleher, who collected gold in the 65-69 class in the 50m freestyle,100m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley. Their other winners were Dymphna Morris, Adrian O'Connor and the relay teams that included Ray McArdle, Greg Straton, Rob Lamb, Thomas Quinn, Carol Cashell, Marie Keane and Sabrina Wiedmer.

Dan Golden (NAC Masters) won the 100m freestyle in the 60-64 age group and Limerick's John Cunningham took a couple of silvers.

The next big event on the competitive swimming calendar comes when 13 swimmers represent Ireland in Baku, Azerbaijan in the European Games from June 23-27.

A further 10 Irish swimmers then jet off to Gwangju in South Korea for the World Student Games from July 4-11. Sycerika McMahon and Fiona Doyle renew rivalry in the breastroke events in this competition.