Léan, David and Laoise Duane bring home the medals.

Swim Ireland Irish Age Groups Division 2 Championships were held at UL Sports Arena Limerick from July 5th to 8th. 776 swimmers from 86 clubs across Ireland competed over the four days. Mallow Swans had a team of eight swimmers taking part.
Thursday morning saw David Duane swim his first event of the meet, the 200m freestyle, in which he had a 2 second PB (Personal Best) and qualified for the final. He had another PB in the final to finish 8th overall.
On Thursday afternoon Chloe Ferris, Lucy Kenny and Fíorna O’Keeffe swam in the 200m freestyle. Chloe swam a strong race achieving a 3 second PB. Lucy, swimming in her first Division 2’s, put in a very good performance. Fíorna, also swimming in her first Division 2’s, had a 2 second PB. Fíorna also put in a very solid performance in the 100m backstroke. The final event of the day was the 400m IM (individual medley). Léan Duane put in a very gutsy performance to finish strong with a 2 second PB to take 1st place and the Gold Medal in the 15 and over Category.
On Friday morning David swam the 100m breaststroke, achieving a 4 second PB and qualifying for the final. The Final was an exciting race in which all three medal winners touched within half a second of each other, with David taking the silver medal. In the afternoon, David qualified for the 100m freestyle final with a 2 second PB. This was another exciting race, with David breaking the minute for the first time, to finish in 2nd place, with a time of 59.95. Chloe put in a very strong performance in the 1500m freestyle race to claim 2nd place and a Silver Medal, in a time of 19.13.09, a massive 23 second PB.
David was once again swimming on Saturday, with 3 events. First up was the 100m butterfly, in which he had a 2 second PB to qualify for the final. He once again had a PB to finish 5th overall. Next up was the 400m freestyle. He had a 7 second PB to finish 5th. The afternoon brought the exciting 50m freestyle event. David qualified for with a 1 second PB. The final was an exciting race with David again claiming silver. Laoise Duane, Chloe and Léan represented Mallow in the 400m Freestyle. The three girls swam very competitively with Chloe and Léan achieving PBs.
The final day of racing began with David swimming the 200m IM. He had a 1 second PB to claim a place in the final. The final was David’s 13th race of the weekend and once again he put in a huge effort to claim silver with a further 4 second PB. Jessica Harris and Chloe swam the 800m freestyle. Both girls put in great performances with Chloe finishing in 4th place. The final event for the Mallow club was the girls 200IM, in which Jessica and Léan swam. Both girls swam really well, with Léan having a 1 second PB.
These swimmers’ season is now over and we hope they enjoy a well-deserved break. We would like to thank coaches for the weekend, Jason Kenny, John Ferris, Aoife Sexton and Gavin O’Brien. Thanks also to the parents and families who helped out at the weekend and to the officials for their great work. We would like to wish the best of luck to our Division 1 swimmers who will be competing in the IAG Summer Open in Dublin at the end of the month.