Swim Ireland and Swim Ulster have announced the postponement of this year’s McCullagh International due to coronavirus concerns.
The organizations together stated, “This decision was not taken lightly, but given the current environment that we find ourselves in, we feel we could not run this event as we would wish.”
The McCullagh International is a yearly meet held in Bangor Aurora and is named for the Irish Amateur Swimming Association’s first director, Dave McCullagh, who lost a battle with cancer in 2002.
Last year we saw the likes of domestic swimmers Shane Ryan, Danielle Hill and Ellen Walshe, while Adam Peaty, Luke Greenbank and Hannah Miley also made appearances.
The 2020 edition, held before the height of the coronavirus pandemic and before the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games, held its prelims at night and finals in the morning. This schedule mimicked the format which will accompany the Games in Tokyo.
Swim Ireland says they hope to run the competition in some format in the last quarter of 2021, which will be after this year’s Olympic Games.
Although the McCullagh International was not a FINA-approved Olympic-qualification meet, it was still an important racing opportunity for aspiring Olympians kicking off their 2021 racing year.