The final day of the 2014 Irish National Championships saw one new qualifier for the European Championships in the women’s 200 breaststroke, and another for the Commonwealth Games in the men’s 50 backstroke.
16-year old Dearbhail McNamara swam a 2:32.95 in the women’s 200 breaststroke. That placed her 2nd behind English swimmer Danielle Lowe (2:30.81), which makes McNamara the Irish National Champion and a 3rd European Championship qualifier in this event for the Irish.
The country’s top two breaststrokers Sycerika McMahon (not at this meet) and Fiona Doyle sat this event out, but both were already considered qualified for the European Championships.
All three would be able to swim prelims at the European Championships in Berlin this summer; LEN allows many entries for each country, and simply limits each to two advancements from prelims.
Lithuanian 18-year olds took 1st and 2nd in the men’s 200 IM final. Danas Rapsys won the event in 2:03.30, and Povilas Stazdas took 2nd in 2:06.55. The 2013 200 backstroke European Junior Champion Rapsys had a solid week of racing, but gave up his chance at a final victory.
Rapsys was the runner-up in the 50 back in 26.45, finishing behind Jordan Sloan’s 26.36. The Lithuanian did push Sloan to a lifetime best – his first in this race since 2010 – and a qualifying mark for the European Championships.
McNamara and Sloan were the only two new additions to the British senior rosters on the meet’s final day of competition.
Among the other event winners was Melanie Houghton, the veteran Australian reincarnated as a veteran Irish, who took the women’s 50 free in 26.07, beating out 16-year old Gabriella Weaver (26.96) for the title. Despite being only .05 seconds away from her second Irish National Record of the meet, Houghton didn’t hit any of the qualifying standards for the European Championships or Commonwealth Games this week in Dublin.
Prior to her 200 breaststroke win, the aforementioned Danielle Lowe won the women’s 200 IM in 2:15.03 and the 100 fly in 1:01.44, giving her a pretty tough triple in back-to-back-to-back women’s races on Sunday. That totals up to six wins for her this weekend (100 back, 200 back, 400 IM were the other three)).
The runner-up in the 200 IM final was Shani Stallard in 2:21.58, which gives her the national title; and Shauna O’Brien is the National Champion in the 100 fly with a 1:02.23.
Andrew Meegan just missed a Euros qualification in the 800 free with an 8:09.84, 11-second win. That was just .34 shy of the European Championships qualifying mark he needed, , which is disappointing as it was about four-and-a-half seconds short of his personal lifetime best. He’s certainly capable of the times needed to qualify, it seems as though he just misjudged his rest for this meet.
And finally, in the last race of the final, Curtis Coulter was a 23.23 to win the men’s 50 free. He was a 23.07 in the semi-finals, but couldn’t drop the last bit needed for a second qualifier time for the Commonwealth Games to couple with his 100 free from earlier in the meet
Full, live meet results available here.
Qualifications
European Junior Championships, 9th – 13th July 2014, Dordrecht, Holland
Qualifiers: Dearbhail McNamara (100m & 200m Breaststroke), Niamh Kilgallen (100m & 200m Breaststroke), Gemma Kane (200m Butterfly) Ben Griffin (400m IM)
Commonwealth Games, 23rd July – 4th August, Glasgow, Scotland
Qualifiers (Nomination Times): Sycerika McMahon (50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke, 400m Freestyle, 200m IM), Michael Dawson (50m Breaststroke), Curtis Coulter (100m Freestyle) Jordan Sloan (50m Backstroke)
*Nomination Time – Equivalent to A Time
**Consideration Time – Equivalent to B Time
IPC European Swimming Championships, 4th – 10th August 2014, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Qualifiers: Ellen Keane (S9 100m Butterfly, 200m IM, SB8 100m Breaststroke), Laurence McGivern (S9 100m Backstroke), Jonathan McGrath (S8 400m Freestyle), Darragh McDonald (S6 400m Freestyle), James Scully (S5 200m Freestyle) Ailbhe Kelly (100m, 400m Freestyle, 100m Backstroke)
European LC Swimming & Open Water Championships, 13th– 24th August 2014, Berlin, Germany
Qualifiers: Brendan Hyland (200m Butterfly), Dan Sweeney (200m Breaststroke) Nicholas Quinn (200m Breaststroke) Barry Murphy (50m Breaststroke) Fiona Doyle (50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke), Sycerika McMahon (50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke, 200m IM), Dearbhail McNamara (200m Breaststroke),
Christopher Bryan (Open Water)