Sport

Freestyle: Ferguson good bet for Tokyo Olympics

The Larne club's backstroke specialist Conor Ferguson  
The Larne club's backstroke specialist Conor Ferguson   The Larne club's backstroke specialist Conor Ferguson  

THE virtual shut down of all aquatic disciplines over the holiday period has provided some time to reflect on the past year and to look forward to the next 12 months.

One of the best young talents to emerge on the swimming scene for quite some time is 16-year-old Conor Ferguson, a backstroke specialist from the Larne club. The highlight of an impressive season was a complete set of medals (gold,silver and bronze) at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa, which complimented a host of Ulster and Irish titles and records.

Next year's Rio Olympics may be just too early for the BRA schoolboy but, if his level of improvement continues, he will almost certainly be in Tokyo in 2020.

University of Calgary student Fiona Doyle is, thus far, the only Irish swimmer to have qualified for Rio and, with time running out, there could be a couple of Olympians from different aquatic disciplines who get the nod. Diver Natasha MacManus gave a good account of herself at the European Games in Baku last summer and open water swimmer Christopher Bryant has been consistently achieving high finishes in the FINA World Cup series.

Masters swimming provided some good news stories, with a big haul of precious metal from the World Championships in Kazan in Russia last August. Deirdre Morris, Adrian O'Connor, Dymphna Morris, Charlotte Reid and Vivian Mongey led the way in the medals tally.

On the water polo front, the Irish Senior Cup is still, by a distance, the major event on the domestic scene and Cathal Brugha brought the title back to Ulster for the first time since 2007 when they beat St Vincent's 7-5 in the final in Limerick.

At the other end of the spectrum, the mini (U9) and maxi (U11) development programme, which was introduced and implemented by Phil Kelly, continues to prosper, with teams from Bangor, Lisburn, Newry, Templemore and Drogheda joining established clubs Setanta, Grads, Donegall Diamonds, Brugha and Clonard in a regular round of competitive tournaments.

In the National Leagues, Brugha go into the new year as undefeated leaders of the Premier League, having recently beaten nearest rivals Half Moon 9-8 in a high quality game at the Aurora Complex in Bangor. Setanta continue to pick up points on their return to the top flight, while Grads are chugging along unbeaten at the top of Division 3.

Donegall Diamonds and Brugha are level on points, three behind leaders St Vincent's in the Women's League.