Lars Humer, Brian Sweeney Named 2014 Irish Coaches of the Year

Read about Doyle’s honor here.

Fiona Doyle was last night named High Performance Athlete of the Year at the Swim Ireland Annual Awards in the Citywest Hotel, Saggart.  Doyle, who is originally from Limerick but based at the University of Calgary in Canada, had an outstanding year in 2014 and won the award based on her performances, in particular her 50m Breaststroke Final at the European Championships in Berlin. Doyle has already shown her desire to secure a place at the Rio 2016 Olympics in 2015with a number of new Irish Records and will target qualification for Rio 2016 at the World University Games and World Championships this summer.

Swim Ireland’s UL Sport Performance Centre Coach Lars Humer was named High Performance Coach of the Year. Humer works with Open Water swimmer Chris Bryan who was 9^th in the 25K swim at the European Championships in 2014 as well as a host of other high performance swimmers.

A total of 12 Awards which celebrate and honour the fantastic work and outstanding accomplishments of Swim Ireland’s athletes, coaches and volunteers were handed out on the night including: Disability Swimmer of the Year Jonathan McGrath; Club of the Year Ards ASC; Club/Regional Volunteer of the Year Nicole Dowdall;  National Volunteer of the Year Mary McMorrow. Bert O’Brien (Sandycove SWPC) was awarded the Water Polo Outstanding Achievement Award for his involvement with the sport which spans over 40 years.

Rachael Lee was winner of the Open Water Swimmer of the Year Award, Rachael won the 2014 Liffey Swim as well as the 10K National Open Water Swim at Lough Dan; Breda McNamara received the Masters Outstanding Achievement award for her work with Limerick and Munster Masters while Cork’s Evening Echo won the media award for their fantastic coverage of swimming.

There was a huge cheer as Brian Sweeney collected the Club Coach of the Year Award, a huge number of members of his Templeogue Club attended to celebrate the occasion. Club swimmer of the year went to Tallaght’s Antoinette Neamt for her outstanding performances in 2014 which included a number of Irish Junior Records.

There were two new additions to the Swim Ireland Awards in 2015; the first was the President’s Award which outgoing president Anne McAdam presented to Liam Goss for his contribution to swimming. The second, the honouring of the 2015 Water Polo All Stars, seven men and seven women were selected for their outstanding performances at the Irish Senior Cup in April.

Ten Junior International Athletes were also honoured on the night, they represented Ireland at European Junior Championships in Swimming and Diving and at the World Youth Olympics while over 20 volunteers were honoured with awards for their services and involvement in the aquatics over 20+ years.

The final part of the evening saw two inductions into the Swim Ireland Hall of Fame. Anne Cummins presented the first in a touching tribute to her sister Marian Fenton (RIP) and the second was presented by past president Wally Clarke to Mr Norman Green who had huge involvement in swimming in the 70’s and 80’s.

Speaking after the event, Swim Ireland’s Chief Executive Officer Sarah Keane commented: “We are delighted each year to be able to celebrate the great accomplishments of our athletes and coaches and to recognise our volunteers for the hard work that they do, that sometimes goes unnoticed. The awards night gives us the opportunity to celebrate and remember the hard work that everyone puts into our sports; swimming, water polo, open water, diving and masters swimming.”

2014 Swim Ireland Award Winners

Water Polo All Stars

Womens:

Isabelle Banks (Glenalbyn)

Lisa Kelly (St. Vincents)

Salina Smellers (St. Vincents)

Rachel Murphy (St. Vincents)

Orla Monaghan (Cathal Brugha)

Eleanor O’Byrne (Tribes)

Mairead Baker (St. Vincents) MVP

Men’s:

David O’Donnell (St. Vincents)

Eoin Nolan (St. Vincents)

Stiofan McMahon (Cathal Brugha)

Jonathan Kirk (Cathal Brugha)

Eoin Bridgeman (St Vincents)

Jozef Krezsak (Half Moon)

Jonathan Donnelly (Cathal Brugha) MVP