Longford Swimming Club

The Community Games Swimming National Finals were held in Athlone last weekend and Longford were represented by a first class squad of swimmers who achieved great success. The highlights of course were the tangible rewards of medals of four Silver medals, two Bronze medals and two Fourth place medals.

The silver medal winners were Jerry Quinn, Longford South, in the U-14 butterfly, Ciara McNevin, Longford South, in the U-16 Freestyle, Sinead McWeeney, Longford North, in the U-12 backstroke and the Longford South U-16 Squad made up of Ciara McNevin, Orlagh O’Brien, Ailbhe Farrell, Ciara Flynn, and Laura Kenny.

The bronze medals were won by, Aoife O’Brien, Longford South, in the U-12 breaststroke and the Keenagh U-13 Squad made up of Shane O’Hanlan, Ciaran O’Hanlan, Mark O’Boyle and Josh Madigan.

The Fourth place medals were won by Brian O’Boyle in the U-16 backstroke and Aaron O’Connor in the U-12 breastroke. While this was a huge return for the small county of Longford, it is less than what might have been with very tight finishes and three other swimmers just missing out on medals by finishing fifth with the tightest of margins, Ciaran Madden, Clonguish, in the U-14 Backstroke, Mark O’Boyle, Keenagh, in the U-12 backstroke and Seadhna Ryan, Lanesboro, in the U-10 freestyle.

The weekend featured many memorable performances, with almost every swimmer achieving semi-final, which in itself is a great achievement, and is a great credit to the training that Ronan McNevin and Carmel Leahy and Mary O’Boyle gave over the summer and throughout the year. The excitement of the Longford supporters almost exploded during the medal winning swims of the Keenagh boy’s squad and the Longford south Girls squads.
Peter O’Boyle, who finishes his community games career with a medal of every colour to the magnificent swim of both Jerry Quinn and Ciara McNevin who started slowly but made up a long gap near the end of the race to move from third to second and almost overtook first place.

Pictured below are the Boy’s Swimming Representatives:

Back – left to Right: Gerry Quinn, Aaron O’Connor, Shane O’Hanlan , Jimmy Byrne, Peter O’Boyle
Front – Left to Right: Seadhna Ryan, Josh Madigan, Ciaran O’Hanlan, Michael McCann, Mark O’Boyle and Duileach Ryan. Missing from Picture: Ciaran Madden, Mathew Valentine and Bryan Ly.

Below shows some of the Girls

Back – left to Right: Sarah O’Boyle, Gemma Reilly, Aoife O’Brien
Front – Left to Right: Aine McWeeney, Sinead McWeeney, Emily Reilly and Kate Sweeney. Missing from Picture: Aideen Skelly.

Our final picture shows the Longford South Squad

L-R – Ailbhe Farrell, Ciara Flynn, Laura Kenny, Orlagh O’Brien, Ciara McNiven